Honeymoon - Part III

Day 8 - Tuesday, July 8, 2008
This morning I woke up in Lucca with a swollen and sore throat and swollen uvula...AGAIN! Argh. When this happens, my energy is shot so we were glad that today was predominantly a travel day. We road two trains to Venice and caught the vaporetto (water taxi) up the grand canal. Venice is mesmerizing from the get go with gondoliers everywhere you look. The buildings are unique and look very old. We got off at the Accedemia stop and navigated the twisty passage ways to our hotel. Our room is decorated in 17th or 18th century green Venetian furnishings. Ahhh...air conditioning!! At our place in Lucca, there wasn't any and no screens on the window. Dave suffered 15 GINORMOUS mosquito bites. Uff da.
After putting our stuff down we headed out to find lunch. Wow, were we shocked at the poor service and horrible tasting pizza. We have been very spoiled thus far. The restaurant was right out in front of the Accademia Museum so we thought we'd take it in. It was filled with art from Venice and especially works of Tintoretto.
Hoping that lunch was a fluke, we sat down in a nice restaurant only to find that...yuck...this food was worse than lunch. Apparently, Venice isn't famous for its cuisine.

Day 9 - Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Unlike our other stops, Venice is completely saturated with tourists. We haven't heard this much English in one place since we left Atlanta 9 days ago. Picture an over crowded Disneyland without any rides. We started our day in St. Mark's Square, but were deterred from seeing the Basillica because of long lines. Instead we hit up the Correr Museum, more Tintoretto! Dave really enjoyed seeing several VERY old globes and many works of art featuring scenes from the Venice of yesteryear. Next we took in the Doge's Palace (pronounced: doh-jzh). The Doge was the ruler of Venice who was elected for life and the Palace served double duty as his residence and the civic center for Venice. The place was gigantic! Every room was covered floor to ceiling in frescos framed in gold leaf. Most of the art was by....you guessed it...Tintoretto. The art, all 500 or more paintings focused on one of four themes. 1) Dead Jesus 2) Venice, represented by a maiden with a sword 3) battle scenes 4) one of the Doge's being crowned by justice or another guy as St. Mark and St. Peter look on. Eventually we became bored and just wanted to escape.
Needing a break, we decided to ride the vaporettos around the islands to see just where they would take us. It was wonderful to feel the breeze and enjoy the water. After a couple hours we ended up at the Rialto Bridge where we found the world's most amazing gelato. HOORAY for gelato.
Just when we thought Venice was redeeming itself we sat down for dinner. Yuck. Did you know that pizza could taste badly? It can.

Day 10- Thursday, July 10, 2008
This morning we decided to beat the heat and the crowds and get to St. Mark's Basillica before it opened. This proved to be an excellent idea. While in line we were dive bombed by rogue pigeons looking for crumbs. I, Cami, ducked in an over exaggerated manner each time out of the fear that one of these said pigeons would decide to release a treat on my head. Luckily, crisis averted, we were ushered quickly into the church.
The church was overwhelming as every inch of the ceiling and walls was covered in ornate mosaics outlined in gold mosaic tiles. The walls vividly told the Biblical story more clearly than any of the other attempts we've seen. We paid a few extra euro to tour some extras (treasures from various conquests, a jewel and gold covered alterpiece, and the museum featuring church history and various mosaic pieces up close.
We walked the long way back to our hotel and "enjoyed" last nights sorry excuse for pizza...cold. Hmmm...great idea.
Next it was off for a long ferry ride to the island of Murano, famous for its glasswork. We enjoyed popping in many shops and admired all of the ornate vases and chandeliers that we would never be able to bring home in one piece.
Next stop, the amazing gelateria from yesterday followed by another disappointing dinner.
Tomorrow morning we are off to the lake district to a town called Stresa. It should be a break from the over-touristy vibe of Venice and our last stop in Italy. If we don't blog for a while, have no fear, after Stresa we will be out of service in the Swiss Alps (poor us!)
Ciao, ciao, ciao (they say it three times )