Where to start.....!
Right now I am sitting on the Eurostar train from Milano to Firenze, and my mommy is sitting next to me. We have just finished our week long trip to Venice and Milan, and we sure have had our ups and downs. We started off our journey in Florence, hopping on the brand new train car that had awesome seats that slide up and down to get comfy. Then there are tables in between the facing pairs of seats.
When we arrived in Venice (only 2 hours away) the train station opened up to the grand canal, and a light snow was quietly falling. We crossed the "New Bridge", a modern stone, steel and glass overpass, which happened to be STAIRS up and STAIRS down. Let me tell you, that was a pain in the you know what. Especially for my mommy with her bad knees. (Poor mommy, all of Venice was bridges with stairs, and I might have giggled at her a few times (right now she's sitting next to me, and as I giggle, she says "be kind!!" :] ).
Well, little did we know, we could have avoided the huge @!# bridge by taking the Valperetto, or the water bus, which stops along the Grand Canal. This is the main form of transportation in Venice, as there are no streets, only pedestrian walkways and small canals weaving around the city's blocks.
The first night in Venice, we walked to Saint Marks Square, IN THE RAIN. Make note of this weather problem. It was also a quite brisk 37 degrees. We had a map of the path there, but let me tell you, you make two turns, and you are so confused you might as well not even have a map. Luckily every visitor to Venice has the same problem, so there are signs pointing you in the right direction.
Soooo, we took our time, and peeked in all the sparkling windows, bright with Venician glass necklaces and sparkling carnival masks. Along the way there was a church with a violin exhibit, focusing on Vivaldi.
Saint Marks Square was 2 feet deep with water just a week before we arrived, and when we stepped foot in the Piazza, the only evidence of the water was the raised pathways that were set up around it, which were in the process of being taken down. These walkways were all around the city center, and let me tell you, I am VERRRRRRY glad that the water decided to drain before we got there. These walkways were pretty darn narrow, and with the amount of people visiting, it would have been crazy. Luck for us, the flooding gets worse during the full moon, and the tides rise. But not the few days we were there!
The piazza was shining from the rain, and each of the arches was lit with red and blue lights. In the walkways there was red lit garland strung from side to side, and it was quite spirited. Despite the cold and rain, there was still a number of tourists, but the famous (infamous??) pigeons were all in hiding...
We ducked in to a side street in search of a place for dinner, and we found a seafood place that looked kind of cute. Three traditional courses for an Italian meal, and I decided to be adventurous, and order the "mixed fried fish from the Adriatic". All of you that know my eating habits as a child would know that I hated fish, and now that I'm a big girl, i wanted to try new things. :] Ha. This "frutta da mare" as we will call it was a plate with a few little friends staring up at me. My goodness, it was terribly unappetizing. I don't think I'll be adventurous with my seafood again... hahaha
The next days included a visit to the Academia, which was full of famous Venetian works, and a tour of Doge Palace, which had elaborately decorated halls, courtrooms, and many prisons, one of which held the famous Casanova, from which he escaped.
One of the highlights of the visit was the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, which was her personal villa right on the Grand Canal. This home was turned into a modern art gallery with all of her pieces plus more. A new exhibit was based on Futurism. Some of the most interesting works in the gallery were by Picasso, Dali, Mann Ray, and Calder, the artist that designed the sculpture chime thingy at Goleta Beach. Outside was a beautiful sculpture garden, and finally there was a watercolor exhibit by Prendergast, in which all the works were from around Venice in the early 1900s.
(Prendergast,
Festa del Redentore, ca. 1899)
One day we took a water taxi out to Murano, where they do hand glass blowing. We saw artists at work making a 30,000 euro chandelier, which was covered in exquisite glass leaves, brushed with gold leaf.
After Venice, we headed over to Milan, where we found Hotel San Carlo, the worst hotel EVER. In Venice we had a beautiful hotel with freshly painted walls, pretty chandaliers, and delicious breakfast where they make you cappucinos. This icky place in Milan was quite dated and the woman at the desk was kind of snappy. Breakfast was "light" aka they were disordered and there was never enough food for all the guests. Next the rooms. There was a permanent sign up appologizing for hte rooms being "under construction" hahaha ya right. I'll just stop there. The city was tidy, but there was a lack of interesting things to do... Milan is arguably the fashion capital of the world, so of course we had to check out the main neighborhood for Prada (started in 1913 in Milan), Louis Vuitton, Gucci, and all the other fun places in between. Then we headed off the stores for the "average" people, but i mean 1. Italians all spend too much on clothes, and 2. the euro is bad. but: the good this is, alllll italian stores do huge sales after new years, so we were in luck . i got some cute new outfits, and saw some pretty clothes. The highlight of Milan was the restaurant San Carlo (no relation to the terrible hotel haha). We had a very friendly waiter, and we were served with potato chips (traditional in Italy) little puff pastry things with a red sauce inside, and green olives all before our meal. I had a spicy pasta, and my mommy had an insalata primavera with a ball of fresh mozzarella cheese on it.
After Milan, we headed back to Florence, and got to explore the city some more, and on my birthday, my mom and I went to the Pitti Palace, a beautiful gallery and in the evening we went to The Diner, and had delicious, fresh burgers.
Overall it was soo nice to have my mommy in Italy, and I was soo glad to share the new life I have with her.
