What's New on the Rialto?

Today was our day in the City of Venice, and we made good use of it.

Photo: View of the Grand Canal from the Rialto bridge

The day started early with a 5:45 wake up call and a bleary-eyed breakfast in the hotel - then on the bus (without my sunglasses, of course) for a 90-minute ride through the Veneto province to the shuttle boat station.

The weather this morning was overcast and about 75 degrees - a light breeze made it nice, but when the breeze died the air was as completely still as 95% humidity could make it. It was a steambath.

The ride out to Venice proper takes only about 15 minutes, and somehow the boat could be traveling about 20 knots and there was still no breeze up on the topdeck. Figure that out and earn yourself a Ph.D.

Photo: our tour guide Marina

Finally, the boat deposits you very close to St. Mark's square at the Gabriella Hotel (look it up - it's apparently very posh). We met our guide and took a short walking tour of St. Mark's square with a primer on Venetian history. Then we went into one of the leading glass houses (stone-throwing and throne-stowing optional) and watched a really cool (well, really quite warm) demonstration of traditional Venetian glass-blowing. The price of admission was a sales pitch about buying these 600 Euro wine service sets, which I politely declined (and you can all hear Jill breathe a heartfelt sigh of relief if you're real quiet right now).

Yet I did find a goodie for myself in Venice today -
substantially cheaper however. A set of proper string-back driving gloves. The funny part is that there are no cars in Venice, of course. I did take a lot of pictures of the amazing wooden boats they have, though.

Photo: Katie Platter, Megan Ferguson, and Megan Schucht

Of course, we all (except Chris Long, who promised his wife) took a gondola ride around the canals, which was a blast and well worth the E20 apiece. The gondoliers are masters of their art, and take the boats within millimeters of walls and other boats without a sound, except the "Ooay" they use to announce their presence around corners.

After our Gondola trip, we all collectively declined the Doge's
palace in favor of "getting lost in Venice" as Sarah put it. So
we noted our time and place of reunion and went off in search of Adventure and Shopping - and found plenty of each.

Kate and I went to a nifty little cafe for lunch and the spaghetti was handmade and cut - with a pomodoro sauce to die for. We took a big chunk out of the Venetian gelato supply as well. When the breeze blew, it was a lovely day. The sun wasn't out all the time and it could be pleasant. When the wind died, it was Sauna city.

Photo: Alexa Rodriguez, Kate Zurschmeide, Aubrey Brown

I was feeling deprived of caffeine (oddly enough, it is possible in Italy) and so I had three cappucinos through the afternoon. I parked Kate in an air-conditioned Burger King (But she had only a diet Coke, honest!) while I did some browsing through the bookstores and other sights of little interest to her.

One of us bought a nice silk tie, and it wasn't me. The mysteries of 14 year old fashion are opaque to me. But for E8, it was a
good deal, and in Fizzball Racing colors to boot!

Later in the afternoon we did succeed in getting totally lost, and almost crossed the Grand
Canal in the wrong direction, which would have imperiled
our meet-up with our group. But that was the goal, and I soon had us straightened out. The view from the Rialto towards St. Marks really is one of the greatest man-made shows on planet Earth.

Photo: Kyle Smith

The architecture of Venice is one of the highlights of the day. In any given square (or Campo, as they say - the only "Piazza" in Venice is that of St. Mark) - anyway, in any given place, you can see byzantine, gothic, baroque, and romanesque architecture, along with newer styles - but nothing is less than a couple hundred years old - or at least, that's the way it looks from the street or canal.

The others on the tour had a fine day as well, with plenty of shopping to go around. Those Venetian masks were a huge hit,
as was the Murano glass. And the gelato - Kate and I were not alone in our massive consumption of cioccolata and melone. I also had Limone and Pesca (Peach - not to be confused with Pesce, which would make pretty awful gelato, I think)

At the end of the day, we took the boat back and enjoyed the AC
in the bus for our ride home. Dinner was Risotto, followed by pork tenderloin and tira misu.
Tonight's blog entry is comparatively short, as I'm headed for my pillow early.
Tomorrow we get on the bus for a long ride to Assisi and a visit to the Basilica of St. Francis. I'm enthused about getting back into the small towns. I like Ponte di Piave, where we're staying.

Then we head south to end our trip around Naples, but stop off in Rome long enough to meet up with the Miata club again. We may be past the halfway mark, but there's plenty of life left in this trip, and everyone is doing well.

Photo: Daniel the glass blower shows off the pitcher he made as our demonstration.

Jill told me that I freaked some folks out mentioning that someone wasn't well - it's one of the folks from Texas, and she seems to have recovered nicely. Apart from some of the girls suffering from bug bites, we're all healthy and happy and having a good time.

Photo: Chris Long relaxes on the boat home after a long day of chasing kids.