Monday, August 11, 2008

Cowboy Boots in Venice

Where has the time gone?!

It didn't seem too long ago Greg and I were in Venice. ah yes, Venice, Italy "The City of Water".











The reason this blog is titled "Cowboy Boots in Venice", is that I walked around Venice every day in my cowboy boots!

I've had a dilemma for awhile, that when Greg and I go on vacations and such, I am ALWAYS in tennis shoes. I always feel so plain in trainers but I can't think of any other shoe that would be comfortable walking 8-10 hours a day in??!
So while we were packing for this trip, I unearthed my boots and thought how I used to dance away the night for up to 6 hours in them, so why wouldn't they be good for walking around in and hey they weren't tennis shoes! Greg is great because he never really cares what I wear and he thought they were cute. I saw many people's eyes gravitate towards my feet but I figured they were just jealous because they would love to have my boots, but they can't.














Venice is definitely a unique place worth seeing once. Why only once? Well, that's because it is way too touristy and the food was HORRIBLE, which I will discuss later!

I think Venice is a remarkable city and I am glad I had the chance to go and see this 1,500 year old European city where there isn't a car to be found and vaporetti (water buses) everywhere you look. Here's how you get around in Venice,














just kidding! here is a vaporetto.















We had a LONG weekend for Labor Day (Friday through Monday) and so we took off on Thursday night, leaving cold and wet Finland behind. Hei Hei Finland and Buongiorno Italy!
Oh and the rest of Europe decided to join us in Venice, or so it seemed.

We stayed at the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice, which both Greg and I think MADE this holiday. The hotel is on an Island, well all of Venice is, but this is on its own island.












This meant relying on vaporetti to get us to the main island but the hotel provided a vaporetto to two different stops and ran every 40 minutes, and on time!
Piazza San Marco was just a ten-minute boat ride away!

Here is the Hilton Vaporetto about to take us to our hotel on the opposite side in this photo.

But here is what made it for us, we were upgraded to an Executive Suite! Not only did our room rock, but we had access to the Executive Lounge which provided FREE breakfast, FREE snacks during lunch time and FREE appetizers and desserts at night, oh yeah and FREE drinks (including prosecco) all day long! Yeah Baby!

The hotel also had a fantastic rooftop pool and indoor spa/workout room, which I was able to use 3 times to help run off all that prosecco and free snacks I was taking advantage of.


Here we are, in the vaporetto, and now we are off near Piazza San Marco, about to start our day.



















We headed off to Piazza San Marco (or St Mark's Square) and it is one the most photographed attractions in the world. The square is defined by the Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile (or bell tower), which stands apart from it.
Now, Greg and I didn't take many great photos of this area or a picturesque one where the pigeons fly up, but you will probably recognize this area.














Saint Mark's Basilica (Basilica di San Marco a Venezia), the famous cathedral of Venice, is a great example of Byzantine architecture.















There are many beautiful, quiet alleys in the neighborhood.



















Another cool thing about walking around Venice is that every 5 min. or so of walking, you run into a plaza with a beautiful church. There seemed to be a lot of churches considering Venice does not have a large population, around 270,000. If you look closely there is a bell tower in the background that has a slight lean - not as much as the Tower of Pisa. hehe ...silly Italians and their leaning towers.
The Chiesa di San Moisè (or San Moisè Profeta) is a church in Venice, northern Italy. It is dedicated to Moses. The San Moise church is also known as the Chiesa di San Moise or San Moise Profeta.











The next day we decided to do some shopping! Get out of my way people, I am on a mission.



















Now that I look back I wished I would have bought one of these jackets because they are a lot better than anything I can get in Helsinki! Greg liked the black one but I didn't, Oh well... Greg was the only one who made out with some nice clothes that day as he loaded up on men's shirts, which are tailored and don't billow out like the American kind that seem to think all men have the shape of a square.




Next we went by many masks shops

and this shop seemed to call to me.
Greg claims there are Masquerade parties here in Finland, so hopefully my pretty feather mask won't go to waste.










ah, loving the sunshine with the Grand Canal in the background.















We then headed back to the hotel so we could change and get ready for our dinner out.

Here is Greg modeling his new Italian shirt. Bow chicka wah wah! Well at least to me that is :-)















Unfortunately Greg and I had a hard time finding anything decent to eat and this night wasn't an exception. Day-glow meat sauce left Greg hungry for something more, maybe even this bottle??!!



















Sunday we decided to go to Murano and Burano.

Murano, the Glass Island. Murano is an island in the Venetian Lagoon, and is famous for its glass making. Murano looks a lot like Venice, just a smaller version.

Supposedly, Murano’s reputation as a center for glassmaking was born when the Venetian Republic, fearing fire, ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano in 1291.






About a few feet from where you enter the city there are great glass sculptures all around!














Now inspect this next picture closely. Did you notice the new addition around my neck? Well, that is where I made out by getting my very own Murano glass piece as a necklace! Thanks honey!















Before we headed to Burano we decided to get some lunch. This was the first place that we found that actually had good food! It was a really cute place too!

They even had a pitcher made out of Murano glass.


And this is a picture of the BEST dessert I have had in a long time. This tiramisu was heaven in my mouth.



















They even had a toilet made out of the Murano glass!!!
D:\Pictures\Venice\Murano -



















Now this was the best toilet I have seen in Venice (or heck most places) as most of the toilets looked like this below.


Why? I don't know, because Italy is one of the richest countries in Europe, so I have to wonder why they cannot spend a few extra Euros to put a seat on their public toilets and raise them up as it was a few inches off the floor. The good news was that most were pretty clean!

I was tempted to come back for dinner, but was talked out of it by my sore puppies.










Next we grabbed a boat to go to Burano.
Greg and I were rather full so we decided to get off at a stop before Burano to walk and burn off some of those dessert calories.

Why does my smile look so funny in this pic? Well, I am staring at the sun and trying to look as pretty as my background....didn't seem to pull that one off very well




















I am glad Greg suggested the walk, because it was not too far and the pathway was rather pretty.



















We wanted to lay down like this lady and just relax, but we decided to go over the bridge and have a look at Burano.


Burano was a really cute little place as the Buranese custom of painting houses in bright colors--a tradition that may have had its origins in the color schemes of local fishing boats.

Every where you look, you'll see houses clad in blue, green, pink, rose, lavender, purple, yellow, and other colors. And because Burano's houses tend to be small, the island has a cheerful coziness.























ahh leaving cute Burano and heading back to Venice

















Gondola ride. On our way back from our trip to Murano and Burano, we saw some Gondoliers. I guess Greg saw me looking with longing because when the first Gondolier came up to us and offered a discounted ride for only 80 euros (yikes), Greg said yes!!

I had been talking about a gondola ride ever since Greg booked the trip, until I found out that the ride cost 100 euros!

I told Greg it would be nice and romantic but 100 euros could buy us a couple of nice romantic dinners, so never mind. But Greg happily surprised me with a gondola ride.

Was it worth it? It's a pretty cliche touristy thing to do, but I have to admit that it was the best experience in Venice. You do get to see the architecture of the buildings a little more up close.














Also, our Gondolier was very knowledgeable and pretty much was a tour guide for 30 minutes explaining the architecture and what each building was or who lived there.

The horn for the gondola is when the gondolier yells "Oy, Oy" as you can hear a little in this video.

And going under the Grand Canal and seeing the opening harbor was an beautiful experience.















It's basically something you must do when you go to Venice. You will not get to do it anywhere else in the world...

You have to be a sucker once, only once. :-)



















For the most part, Venice is the attraction itself and there's nothing specific to do, but to go and get lost in the alleyways and canals.