Sunday & Monday in Venezia

 

Sunday we decided we would go to see San Marco.  Before we could do that, we had to find breakfast.  Because of nursing and my mood swings, I am not pleasant if I don’t get food so finding breakfast was a priority for both of us, me because of my stomach, Matt because he didn’t want to be around a grumpy wife.  We decided we would find the same café because Matt remembered where it was and it had delicious mini quiches, better than the chocolate pasteries everywhere else!  So we started walking and we continued to walk and walk and eventually we were in San Marco square!  It was actually pretty close to our hotel.  Unfortunately, we found the square before we found the food so my mood was fading quickly.  Matt was frustrated and wanted to look at a map but because of the giant stone buildings, the GPS on his phone only worked in big open areas.  So we left the square and continued to wander a few more blocks until Hip hip hooray!! We found the café.  After a mood lifting breakfast, we wandered back to the Piazza di San Marco. In the Piazza, there are many different things happening!  There are vendors selling lots of different things.  There are cafes for snacks, there are pigeons.  There are people who pay to have their picture taken as they run towards the pigeons.  Then there are people like me who are just walking around and looking at all the wonderful things who get attacked by the pigeons.  They must have thought we wanted a picture of me frolicking with birds.

Matt in front on San Marco, no birds attacking him!

Picture of me in front of San Marco when the pigeons attacked!

As we walked up to the church and find out that you are not allowed to tour the church with a backpack or large bag (when we travel we use the backpack as the diaper bag because it has a camelback for water and the diaper bag gets heavy on one shoulder).  After finding out you can’t have a bag, my first thought is “Great, we can’t go or we have to take turns.” Luckily, this is not the case.  There is a place where you can store your bag while you tour the church. Surprisingly, the bag storage is free.  The tour of the church is not.  We were lucky enough to time it that we were in the church during mass!  We peeked over the edge and watched a few minutes of mass.  The inside of the church was quite amazing!  Another very cool thing was the clock tower.  We were on the outside balcony at noon and were able to hear the noon bells.

On top balcony of San Marco, listening to the bells

After we toured the church and went to get our backpack, we ran into the couple we met on the plane.  She of course was all trendy and cute.  And she had planned every moment of their vacation before they got there so they actually went to mass.  We chitchatted with them for a few minutes comparing vacations and then we had some awkward excuses so that we could part and go on our own way.  Matt and I choose to stay in the piazza but go have a picnic at the water’s edge. 

Cool clock tower

Where we had our lunch

Our next stop was Murano!  We caught the waterbus in the Piazza San Marco and rode all the way to Murano. It was a fairly long ride and one of the stops was another little island which was a cemetery.  When you get off the waterbus in Murano, there are men there directing you immediately to the left.  We figured we had to go that way but in the end we learned, they were just sending you to their factory to see the glass blowing.  We made it in time to see the next demonstration.  The guy made a vase and a glass horse.  It was pretty incredible.  He was able to make it very quickly and it was really fascinating to watch.  I definitely suggest watching a demo if you go.  After the demo, we headed to the Grand Canal.  Of course we went the long way and possibly you can say we were lost.  We walked down alleyways that you could probably call resenditial areas. WE finally got the main street and it was riposo!  Yep, everything was closed.  So we wandered a little bit and decided to sit and have a snack.  Eventually some of the stores opened and we noticed that most of the stores had the same things and about the same prices.  We found our souvenir, a plate for the front hallway with a tree on it, and a couple of gifts.  While we were shopping, we found glass everything. You name it and we found a glass version of it.  The sun was starting to set so we headed back to the ferry and back to Venezia.  We found the cutest tapas restaurant with awesome wine and food.  It had lots of locals there which I think is a good indicator that it is worth the trip! 

Some of the cool glass art on Murano

The last day of the trip we wandered around more and went to lots of markets.  Matt bought me a really cool scarf and hat and we bought really cool masks for his parents.  We also realized that we were done with Venezia.  Many people had told us that you just need a couple days.  We had three full days and that was too much.  We headed back to the airport and had to wait until 2 hours prior before we were allowed to check into the flight.  As we were waiting for the flight to start boarding, the baby decided we needed more adventure!  She decided to have a diaper blow out and required the use of all the wipes in the diaper bag!!  So we changed her into her pjs and she slept on the plane!

1. 

   Baby after diaper explosion enjoying some time out of the ERGO

    

Things we learned on this trip: do not depend on using drawers as an alternative for a crib, buy water and snacks at the grocery store to save money and keep hydrated, get a recent travel book, breakfast is important and difficult to find so bringing cereal bars as a back up is a good idea, the baby does not like 3 days in the ERGo, bring an umbrella, and Venezia is really cold. 

Doing a Ralphie impression!