Venice - Day 1

NOTE: Once we arrived in Venice, we no longer had access to WiFi, so these posts are being provided post-trip.

 It has been a long day.  The train from Florence to Venice itself was only 2 hours, but it was 30 minutes late.  Then we had to negotiate tickets for the vaporetto (water bus).  We got to our apartment about 2:30, got oriented by the owners, Maurizio and Gaetano, went to a local market, and started walking what appeared to be a very straight shot from Dorsudoro (our neighborhood)  to St. Mark's.  Needless to say, it was NOT a straight shot and a 23 minute walk took us at least an hour.   So the vaporetto is our fail safe to get back to the apartment.  If we catch the #2 at St. Mark's we can get off at the Accademia, walk straight to the next body of water, turn right and we are almost home.

Our apartment is in a building from the 6th century.  Can you imagine?  It is not as big as the one in Bassano but bigger than the one in Florence.  Only problem---no WiFi and no TV.  The TV is not that useful since everything is in Italian, but we sure miss the WiFi.  Luckily the restaurants near here have it and it is pretty good.  This area of Venice is called Dorsudoro, an island across the canal from the main body of Venice.  It is much more of a neighborhood of Italians than a tourist destination, though there ARE tourists over here, too.  It is quiet and really only a few minutes from the "action".  When we got lost today, we were actually wandering through this neighborhood.  I was impressed.  This was my first time in Venice seeing open areas where kids were playing...kicking a soccer ball around, and racing on little scooters (powered by feet not engines).

I am tired and luckily so is DJ.  I'm not the least bit hungry and he says he isn't either, but my experience is that he needs feeding every two hours.  So far today he has eaten the remains of our dinner in Florence (tagliatella ala panna and spaghetti with wild boar), a banana, a pizza, salmon, potatoes, and grilled vegetables, a panini, AND gelato.  As he got up at 9 and it is now 8:30, that's a good bit of food in 11 1/2 hours.  He is out now scouting out a gym and a place where we might want to eat.  I don't think he has put on a pound, but I'll bet I have.  Life is not fair.

Elena and Stefania arrive tomorrow.  Before they get here, we are going on a tour.  I'm hoping they will entertain him tomorrow night.  I don't have the energy.  

Some of my thoughts while sitting here:

1. The pigeons here are fat and nuts.  They are so used to humans that they will not move if you walk towards them.  You must walk around them to get anywhere.
2. The seagulls are HUGE. They pull up their wings and squawk at you if you get too close.
3. Venice is expensive.  Coffee everywhere in Italy is 1 Euro (if you stand up to drink it).  In Venice it is 1.5 Euros.  No refills.  Bathrooms cost a Euro ($1.36).  That got DJ's interest.
4. Venice is the least "ice friendly" of the three cities.  This apartment doesn't even have an ice tray.  At least in the others, we had 4-5 pieces of ice.
5. Toilet paper has improved in the past 30 years in Europe.  They have it and it is not too stiff.
6. The washing machine in Florence took 2 hours to wash one small load of clothes.  I don't understand what takes so much time.  No one seems to have a dryer.