Venice, IT

10-30-2008
Leaving Poland wasn't easy for many reasons, and if it wasn't for the fact that I was leaving for the States from Venice I wouldn't go. It was nice seeing family and friends after 2 year break and it was even nicer to see the bond between us still there and getting stronger in some circumstances. Nevertheless Venice was waiting for me.
I don't like traveling on my own and I think that's why I was nervous. All that dissipated when I arrived at the airport and found the information desk - the staff was fantastic, I found out what I needed and headed out to the city:) The ride on Alilaguna boat took over an hour!!! I should've taken the express line, instead I was stuck on the local blue line. It was dark and I couldn't see the area, but at last there it was! I arrived right at San Marco Square! It was good that I traveled relatively light as I had to log my own suitcase to the hotel. I found it relatively easy - Antica Panada. Right behind the Square! Great spot. Tingy wasn't there yet so I decided to go and explore the area. It was close to 10 PM and with all the lights San Marco Square looked enchanting. I walked around the restaurants and shops and heard someone play tango - I think I have to learn how to dance it, I got jealous looking at others moving to the beat. When I got back to the hotel Tingy was there waiting for me. We decided to go with hotel's recommendation and ate dinner at Ristorante Bar Da Celio. Both the main dish and the dessert were a bit disappointing, I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone.
Friday morning I took my time and caught up on my sleep a bit. Then ventured out solo and explored the whole area of San Marco. I took pictures along my path and I couldn't get enough of Venice's beauty. Some might say that the water was dirty, the walls of buildings were not up to par and gloomy but I loved it all. I loved the mask stores and souvenir shops, ostarias and gondolas.I was amazed at the prices thou! They were pretty steep! In the afternoon I caught up with Tingy and we decided to have a quick and LIGHT bite, since later on we were going to take a tour with Oltrex (their office is just around the corner from the square) Venician Food and Wine Tour. We ended up right on Riva degli Schiavoni and picked a place to eat. Looking at the menu our eyes got big and we realized that we were more hungry then we thought. We selected a couple of items from the menu and finally enjoyed the food! What a difference from last night. Their profiteroles in white cream were delish!:) Feeling full we returned to the hotel and got ready for our evening. Turned out that we were the only ones taking the Food tour which was great because we had the guide all to ourselves! He took us to a couple of places which despite feeling full we enjoyed tremendously:) We visited three Bacaro Osteria's which are I would say equivalent to Spanish tapas bars. Food was good and inexpensive and the vino even better:) We marked the places carefully on our map and decided to return to at least two of them. Our favourite was on Salizz. San Canciano,........ The food was good there...or maybe it was because of Rocco...or maybe it was the home made bottles of wine that the manager offered us before our departure. The third bacaro was on 6378 C. Larga G. Gallina (Ostariaalponte.com), just a step from Campo Giovanni - their cheese and ham platter had us singing praises (or maybe it was the wine we consumed so far). After the tour we ended up going to performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and afterwards we ended our day.

Saturday was rainy:( We equipped ourselves with umbrellas and headed out. Some areas of the Square were so flooded that we couldn't get thru, seemed like everyone in Venice was out on the "streets" creating traffic everywhere:) Today's goal was to take a ride along the Grand Canal, and we succeeded. We ended up all the way by the bus station and explored most of San Paolo on the way back. For dinner we retraced our steps from the prior day, went back for dessert to our "lunch spot" (but I had to skip - they were OUT of profiteroles!!! Unthinkable!) Then we decided to top the day off with a Bellini at Harry's Bar. That's were the drink was "assembled". I kept on starring at the bartender hoping to steal their recipe without much success:( We returned to our hotel to pack.
Tingly left this morning:( I wasn't looking forward to spending Sunday alone in the most romantic city I've ever seen but decided to make the most of it. I took a stroll in a new area Dorsoduro. I walked along a path on Canale della Guidecca and found a supermarket (Billa) 1492 FMTA zattere Gesuati! We were wondering where the locals got their food and I got the answer. Walking back to the ferry I discovered a nice little wine store with a great selection(992 Cantine del Vino along Rio di San Triovaso)! I didn't want to carry heavy bottles with me and decided to return later, only to find out that they were closed!:( I took a quick nap, finished packing and headed out to the airport around 3:30 Monday morning. As I was walking thru San Marco square I realized that I was the only person there! The sound of my suitcase rolling on the ground echoed everywhere. I looked around, took a deep breath trying to absorb it all and said good bye to Venice.