Italy - Day 9 - May 9, 2019

Last day in Venice, last day in Italy! 

When it wasn't rainy! 

Today was a rainy day. Since our hotel did not serve, breakfast and we wanted to make the most of our last day, we walked back to the pizza place with the big windows from yesterday. They served breakfast and we were excited to give it a try. Unfortunately in our travel hustle and bustle, I didn't journal this day and forgot what we ate exactly, but I know it was good! 

We decided to go in some shops on the way to San Marco Square. We stopped in a chocolate shop and bought some chocolate and pesto. They had a lot of samples so of course we wanted to try everything. Steve decided he also wanted to buy some carnival masks to commemorate our time in Venice so we stopped in a few shops to see what they all had. 

We spent some more time looking at all the details of San Marco and decided to check out Doge's Palace instead of the cathedral. The Doge was the chief magistrate of Venice. The Doge was elected by a selection of 40 people. And then there is a line of people above and below them that made decisions for the people. The Doge's Palace is enormous. It felt like each room served a very specific function for the people of the time. 

 The two things that stood out to me specifically where the number of fireplaces. There seemed to be one in each room. The next is that Doge's Palace houses the largest room in the world. It is called the The Chamber of the Scrutinio. The Doge's Throne also sat there and behind it was the longest painting in the world. It is called Il Paradiso. The whole space was very overwhelming, in a good way. It's hard to know where to look! It was incredible. 













We then made our way to the prison. There is the famous Bridge of Sighs that leads from the Palace to the prison. It is said that it was prisoners last view of the outside world, so they would often sigh to themselves as they crossed. We got photos in and outside of the bridge. The prison was interesting because the prisons drew on the walls and much of it was still there. 


After we left Doge's Palace, we headed out to get lunch. Steve found a place that sold noodles "to go". There weren't many seats and they gave you pasta in what looked like Chinese food containers. You built your own pasta and it was so surprisingly delicious for such a quick stop. 

After lunch, we decided to shopping until we had to change for dinner. We decided in Florence that we wanted to get something special from each place we visited. Florence, we bought a photo album and a painting. San Gimignano, we found wine and and olive oil dispenser, and for Venice we decided to get a carnival mask. We were not there during carnival, but it's such a big part of the city's history, we had to get some! We went in and out of a few stores and finally found some unique hand-painted masks at a reasonable price. 

Steve had spent a lot of time researching and found a highly rated, higher scale restaurant to go to as a celebration of our last night and a wonderful trip. Bistrot de Venise was the winner! We changed at the hotel and headed back out before our reservation time. I finally allowed myself the temptation and went in a Murano glass store. Everything was so pretty. And I finally allowed myself to fall into the temptation and decided to buy a pretty necklace! Thankfully they were very reasonably priced. 

I walked out wearing the necklace and we went to dinner. The Bistrot was a cute, and beautifully decorated with red. The service was top notch! The menu was unique in that there were 'classic' and 'modern' sections of the menu. The classic section housed more traditional Venician cuisine, and the modern section is self-explanatory. 

Here's what we got! 
Appetizer: Gourmet Egg
Chef's competary appetizer: Carrot soup
First Course:
Hillary- pasta with burrata cheese
Steve - Umbrime (a fish dish)
Second course: 
Hillary - duck breast
Steve - Raw cooked risotto (which the waiter highly recommended)

Dessert: some creme puff kind of yummy deliciousness 

 
 


This almost won best restaurant! It was extraordinary, and beautiful and the wait staff treats you like royalty. Definitely recommend! 

Exhausted and full, we headed back to the hotel to pack up our wonderfully beautiful trip. 

Italy is a dream and we would go back in a heartbeat. It's so rich in it's history, sights, people and food! 

Italy - Day 8 - May 7, 2019

Today we traveled to Venice! We set up a taxi that took us to the train station in Poggibonsi. That was a “local” train that took jus back to Florence. Once in Florence, we hopped on a high speed train that would take us to Venice. 

The high speed trains are much nicer (even the bathrooms!). We had assigned seats and I tried to read but got distracted by the gentlemen sitting across the aisle from us. I heard one guy say “Prince William was at my mom’s for dinner once”. And after that, they had my full attention. 

The train took us straight into Venice!  There was a bridge that crossed the water and it was really

The view from our hotel

fun! When you leave the train station, you walk right out onto the Grand Canal, and it looked just like every photo of Venice you've ever seen, there was no build up, you were just in it! We avoided the pushy cart guys (luggage porters) and go tin line for a water taxi to our hotel. Steve figured out the stops and where we needed to go, thank goodness. We got off our taxi and drug our luggage through the uneven streets. Again thanks to Steve’s navigation we made it to our hotel. Our hotel was right on one of the canals, which was so cute. We got to our room and it was one of the apartment rooms, what that means is that there were two full bathrooms, and one of the bathrooms had a normal shower! All of our hotels had the small showers, but had towel warmer, so that made up for it. Our view was right over the canal where you could see all the people walking around and in the gondolas.  

After we settled in, we head out to find food, which was priority number one in each city we visited. While walking around, we found a place that had big open windows with giant pizzas! Steve had salami pizza and I had olive fracchicia with a glass of white wine. We were both pleased, but knew we’d need more food later. 

We then wandered around a bit until we found San Marco Square. Venice was busy with tourists, but not as fast paced as Florence. One of the first things we noticed, is that Venice has many statues of a lion, all over the place. A quick google search told us that it is called "The Lion of Venice" and represents St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. Near the water, gondolas were lined up on the water and they are very pretty in person. Though, the cost for a half hour ride during the day (it's more at night) was 90 euro. Steve and I decided it was not worth the cost to ride in one, but they were still really fun to see. 

Venice is a really great city to just meander around. There is a lot to see, and it is very colorful. We made our way across the Rialto Bridge to the other side of the Grand Canal, and everything was just a great. There were many little plazas with flowers growing up the walls. We happened upon a small orchestra practicing outside and there were performers in the windows and doors around the square. It was really unique and such a wonderful thing to just stumble upon. 

We started to get hungry again so Steve began to search some good restaurants near us. We decided on a very small restaurant nearby. In our time in Italy, most locals we encountered spoke English, without us even asking. The gentleman at this restaurant did not speak English, so Steve finally got to use all the things he practiced before we left! I got a small pasta dish and Steve got some kind of mushroom chicken dish. He also chose from some toast with toppings from a case in the front. It was super yummy! 

After dinner, we went back towards San Marco, and enjoyed the city at night. There is a nice shoreline where you can see the other two islands of Venice, Murano and Buranno. Murano is where they make glass and the buildings looked so colorful. 

The first day in Venice was great! Steve and I went back to the hotel to research our activities for our last day in Italy! 

Italy - Day 7 - May 6, 2019

One week in Italy! Time flies! We walked into San Gimignano with the hopes of getting a taxi to a winery on the other side of town. We exchanged some of our money into euros and ate lunch. I had gnocchi and Steve had mushroom pasta. We ended with a gelato dessert (of course). 

We walked to get a taxi, but they were closed. We then decide the winery outside town probably wasn’t the best idea, just in case. Transportation was inconsistent and I didn't want to get stranded 7 miles outside of town. San Gimignano is small but it is such a pleasant place to walk around, we really didn't mind spending another day there. 

We decided to look for the churches we missed the day before and to do some shopping. We found a church on a side of the town we hadn't spent much time in. It was very cute and in a very quiet courtyard. 

We continued to wander and bought some wine, olive oil and vinegar. We also got a Christmas ornament! We decided to check out one of the leather shops we kept passing as to stop ourselves from the temptation of very nice leather products! I practiced some great self control, and left without buying anything. 

Our dinner view!

When we left the leather store, we decided that we should really get some taxis set up to take us to the train station to head to Venice and were successful! With the transportation stress resolved, we then ate dinner.  We found a place in a quiet corner off the main street and ate outside. I got ravioli which was great! I've been avoiding "classic" or overly Americanized dishes, but decided to give it a try and it was very worth it! And Steve got lasagna. Our appetizer was a cheese plate with honey and jam. I love that they pair cheese with honey here! 


We then took our taxi back to the hotel and enjoyed some Vernaccia while we planned a little bit for Venice. We leave for Venice tomorrow! It’ll be interesting to see how all that works! Goodbye, San Gimignano! You were just the peace we needed.