6:31pm 10/16/07
Another miracle – I’m on the train to Florence and I’m pretty sure it’s the right one. I’m positive I’ll be utterly whacked by the time I get to the hotel in Perugia, another 6 hours from now, so I’d best write about my day while I can A). still remember it and B). type with both eyes open and my head off the table.
My cell phone alarm was supposed to wake me up this morning, which it sort of did at 8am, but my room was so cold I couldn’t bear to get out of bed – a bed, which, by Venetian standards, was extremely comfortable. I remember waking up at one point in the middle of the night and being completely confused where I was – my room was pitch black and there was absolutely no noise…amazing to consider when you think about what a noisy city Venice is, even at night (and a testament to Locanda Vivaldi!). So you can imagine my surprise when I awoke again at 9am to the sounds of the church bells from St. Mark’s. Even now I can’t think of a better way to have awoken for my full day here. I peeked out my open window into the canal – the sky was completely cloudless – another beautiful, sunny, cool day. Boy did I luck out.
I threw on some jeans and wandered downstairs and across the courtyard into the main building, where breakfast was being served buffet-style in 2 little rooms off the main hallway – and what a spread! Cookies, breads, eggs, fruit, yogurt, coffee cake…all FREE (well, included in the room rate). This is unheard of at home. I had a small breakfast and some coffee (which they tried to Americanize and it tasted horrible, but I wasn’t about to be picky). I went back up to my room to change into clothes that didn’t scream TOURIST and wistfully checked out of the hotel (but let them hold my luggage until the evening when I needed to leave the city). Off to explore! I walked around town for a good 3 hours, going by places I remember from last time, poking my nose into stores, listening to what I could understand of conversations, wandering down little side streets and just soaking everything up. I find it hard to imagine I could ever tire of the feeling that you can walk around any corner and see a canal or street more beautiful than the last, because you really can’t. When I found the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, which I remember studying about in college but didn’t get a chance to go into last time, I paid the 7 Euro charge and went in. I couldn’t remember WHAT about it I studied, because nothing inside really rang a bell except for one HUGE Lamentation painting, but then again those all start to look the same after awhile. It was a phenomenal building inside though, full of intricately carved wooden and marble walls, half of which were covered with HUGE in situ oil-on-canvas paintings – you could have touched them because none were covered in glass or plexiglass or anything. You could even see the edges where the canvas had torn away, revealing the structure beneath the actual paint. Unfortunately almost all of the works looked extremely dark and fuzzy, likely due to deterioration over time but I’m sure in part due to the washes I could tell had been painted over the original surfaces – such a shame, but then again that’s what everyone complained about the Sistine Chapel, and after they cleaned it and it wasn’t dark and washed anymore everyone was still pissed. So who’s to say which is better.
Stopped for a gelato at the same place I’d visited with my mom on our wanderings a year prior, and continued on. Andrea told me it takes exactly 31 minutes of jogging to eliminate the calories gained by consuming one gelato. That sucks because if I intend to run off all the gelatos I expect to eat here I’m going to have to miss a lot of work when I get home. I was starving and exhausted by 1pm so I wandered around trying to find just the right spot to eat. I finally stopped at a little cafe that sits right on the canal next to the Rialto Bridge – which was probably a stupid, touristy thing to do but I wanted to be able to sit near the water and this way I had a great view of the gondoliers and could sit in the sun and enjoy the weather. The hosts seemed perplexed by the fact that I was alone and wanted a table for one person (not common for women to travel alone here), but they sat me anyway. I spoke Italian to the waiter and it didn’t take long before he apparently thought I could speak way more than I actually can and began yammering away…I fumbled through a “si” a couple of times just to get through – I still have no idea what he said. Something about “taking a walk.” In any case, I had a cappuccino and some pasta bolognese (which, despite its simplicity and prevalence in US restaurants, couldn’t have tasted better or more authentic). I drank nearly an entire bottle of water (and not an AMERICAN bottle of water, an Italian, comes-in-a-glass-jug, serves-a-table-of-4 bottle), paid and kept going. Now I was sort of on a mission because one of my co-workers at the hotel wanted more of the glass rings I had brought back last time (as did I) and my mom had broken her necklace that we’d bought there…and even though she told me she didn’t want me to replace it, I bought her one anyway. I felt like I’d walked the entire city by the time I needed to go back to the hotel and retrieve my luggage. I had one last Venetian espresso outside my hotel gazing at the scene around me and praying I’d get to come back to this incredible place again soon. Believe me when I say it has occurred to me on multiple occasions how blessed I am to have been here twice and I’m only 23.
Inside St. Mark’s Church…unreal.
I found the boat that stops at the train station on the other side of the island, bought a ticket and hopped on. And when I say “hopped” I mean barely squeezed onto the edge of the boat amidst a throng of very determined Europeans and stood uncomfortably close to a lot of strangers for a good 25 minutes until we finally got to my stop at Santa Lucia Stazione. Luckily Andrea had given me good pointers and I’d made it in plenty of time for my train, which I didn’t even see on the departure list. Glory. “Please tell me there aren’t TWO train stations in Venice and I’m at the wrong one.” I finally found a train schedule posted and saw my train number – well it was up there on the board after all but apparently the one I’d booked was a Eurostar to Rome which makes a STOP in Florence. My car was almost at the end of the platform so I had to walk by all the first class cabins before I reached my 2nd class one – and believe me, the difference is so minimal I can’t understand why anyone would pay the extra money for a first class ticket at all. It’s still going to be quite a zoo from here, because I have to switch trains in Florence, and once I get to Perugia (at 11:30pm no less) I need to take a taxi to my hotel and pray that Katie has already made it there and checked us in because the reservations from here on out are under her name, not mine. So anyway, I don’t feel out of the weeds quite yet but am now kind of learning to enjoy traveling on my own. Except eating by yourself still sucks. I greatly look forward to having a friend with me from now on to dine with!
Totally off the subject – there are 4 Americans sitting a couple rows away from me, all retired-age, and they are SO. LOUD. I’m beginning to see why Europeans think tourists from the U.S. are so annoying.
Still it’s nice to relax a bit now after walking all day. I miss Venice terribly already but I had a really special time there, I think. I didn’t get to have a bellini at Harry’s Bar (largely because I couldn’t FIND it) but that leaves me something to do the next time I am here : ) The pain of leaving this place is ameliorated by the fact that my trip has really just begun. On to a brand new city!
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