May 12
We awoke to street noises and the st. mark’s bell and then got our day started around 9am. We debated heading all the way back to the train station to check the schedule for our exit the next day, but instead decided to hit the internet cafe. I also was needing to email our next hotel as they wanted notice a few days in advance, of our approximate arrival time.
We got to the internet cafe, and it was not due to open for another 15 minutes, so we found a nearby street cafe and had an espresso and a cappichino. It was my first attempt (I think) at an espresso and I must say it was quite bitter, I think I eventually had a bigger sugar to coffee ratio. However, I had most of lisa’s cappichino and it was the best one yet of the trip.
The cafe opened and we took care of buisness. At that point we decided to get on a water bus and make our way across the backside of the canal and go to a few churces across the way. But once on the bus, we had front seats in the air, we didn’t want to get off at the 3rd stop. So we decided to stay on for all 15 stops and then get off at the last stop and do the Accademia museum instead. We were enjoying our cheap bus ride, in the open air. Part of me thought we should just go round and round all day. It was that much fun. Though, we got off at the Accademia museum, and before going in the museum, ate some pizza at a cafe right outside. Mike would have loved this pizza because it was not very high quality and tasted like it was frozen pizza from back home. Lisa barely made it through a slice, and I wasn’t gonna leave it.
There was no line for the museum and it was not very crowded. It started with some byzantine art, but worked our way through art by Veronese, Bellini, Giogiorne, and some Tintoretto’s. I recall from my trip in 1997, that my favorite two items from this place was The Tempest by San Giogiorne and The Feast in the House of Levi by Veronese. I’m not sure why I included the Tempest, because on further review, there wasn’t much special to it. Although, it had a long and complicated history, so maybe that is what I found so pleasing. Veronese however, I think I really like. I like many of his pieces, and The Feast I think is one of my favorites. I also like the story and history behind it. It takes up a giant wall and is full of details. I think I could spend hours looking at it.
Part of me wishes that there were some great museums with just one or two pieces of art. I think I’d like to once, just sit for 2 hours in front of one piece, reflecting, praying, writing, and seeing what thoughts come to mind. But in days of fast travel, and even quicker society, there isn’t time for that. Maybe one day.
Speaking of speed, we made it through that museum in a mere 45 minutes. Hopped back onto the water bus, with intentions and determinations this time of getting to the churches across the way. The first church was called Il Redentore (the Redeemer). This church is beautiful. Not only is it pretty, but every nave seemed to have a great piece of art by Tintoretto. I loved the arches, and the domes and the perked ceilings. I snapped a couple of pictures, but then got reprimanded, albeit kindly. Il Redentore has a cool background story.
We walked a few blocks and then realized that we needed another water bus, and found our way to San Giogore church. Lisa enjoyed the beauty of this one more than the last. It is a gorgeous church with a large campinelle. It housed great works of art, and we could take pictures more freely, and explore more depths of the choirs and main basillica. We took the elevator up the campinelle for great views of Venice. As Dr. Carlander would have said, “beautiful.” Lisa must be getting at least slightly annoyed, as I keep reminicing about when I was here last, travelling with school, enjoy the friendship of Andrew. Some things that we are doing, such as visiting these 2 churches, were things that I did and enjoyed so much before.
Along those lines, after San Giogore, we took a water bus to the San Salute church, which when I was here, was our stop. I was attempting to find my way back to the hotel I stayed at before, so I could show her where we would climb in and out of the window, and how it was right across from where a famous poet once lived. We found the Hotel Messener, but despite going in every alley, could not find my window or the poets house.
We traversed over bridges, through alleys, across squares and then more bridges and found our way back to our room. I did some Snide prep work and we rested. Then, we went back to the itnernet cafe where I spent a frustrating 2 hours trying to publish my Snides. The attempt to upload a video to youtube kept failing, I would get typed and insert a bunch of photos and tags, and then the computer or server would freeze and when I would re-enter into the right page, I’d find that I lost 20-30 minutes of work. We kept buying 30 minute increments, and eventually I completed (all but the youtube video) of my posts up until Venice.
We then walked about 45 minutes looking for the perfect place to enjoy our last meal in Venice. Sadly, we didn’t find the perfect place, but gave up looking cause we were tired of walking, and energetic for food. I had a caprese that was substandard and Lisa ate some very good minnestrone soup. My next plate was Spaghetti Pomodoro which was very delicious, and she had a pizza Margerhita that was substandard. All of this chased down by frizzante (Peligrino).
We made our way back to our hotel, stopping briefly to take some very nice pictures in St. Mark’s square, as the sky light was perfect. We tried to set an alarm lisa downloaded for her computer as we were going to attempt to wake up at 5:00 am so that we could catch the 6:00 am water bus, that would get us to the train station by 6:30 so that we could catch the 7:20 train ride to the Cinque Terre. This train ride would take approximatley 7 hours so we didn’t want to miss the early train as the next one was 2 hours later and wouldn’t get us to our destination till 6pm.
Needless to say, I was not expecting a great night of sleep, as I had my doubts on if the alarm would work. Little did I know, that it was going to be an even worse night of sleep than I expected and would still end in failure, with slight redemption.
The gentleman took us to our room which was around the corner. We were given a keychain with 4 keys on it: the street-side door, the hallway door, the bedroom door and one to stick into the light socket to power the lights. Our room was funky and colorful with bright burnt orange curtains on 3 windows that overlooked the street and would become noisy at night. It was a cozy room and we didn’t see the landlord again. It had a bidet, and this time I used it, but mainly as a refreshment from long days of walking and getting lost.
We came across a street vendor, and I bought a pair of joke boxers for Cameron–the statue of David’s genital area.
Woke up around 6am this morning after about 4 hours of sleep. I felt smokey, and grimy and sweaty. It was a gross night of sleep. Packed up our things, and then had some breakfast. Hotel complimentary breakfast’s sure do beat the continental breakfast’s in the US. We checked out of the hotel, and caught a cab to the train station. Got in line at 8:20 am to catch the 9:30 train to Venice. However there was one leaving at 8:35 so we got that instead. Pulled out our slick tiny computer and have been typing in notepad these journals, for website postings later. Its a great way to spend the 2.5 hour train ride. Too bad there isn’t wireless on this train in order to streamline the process. But I am grateful for the chance to catch up on some journals. I am caught up now,for now, and we just passed the Vicenza train station. We have approximately 30 minutes left of this train ride, and then a walk to our hotel in Venice.
We found our seats and they were awesome. We were just north of the penalty box. The stadium was much different and better than I ha expected. On TV, you see these glass walls and a lot of fencing behind the goals, but this was not bad in person. We had wondered if they had stadium food, and what it would be. Would it be hot dogs and cokes? Pizzas and pastas? It ended up being a lot of panini’s. Lisa was disappointed in the women’s bathrooms, as it was just a hole in the ground. I didn’t make it to the men’s to find out. We sat in our seats for 2 hours before the game. The stadium still had a ton of people in it, and they were all ready chanting away and lighting their flares, and loud booms of gunshot like noise filled the stadium. It was quite a spectacle. The stadium was filled with banners, and people wearing red and black. There was one section of Juve fans, behind glass walls, and when they would chant, fans would stand up swearing and cursing and flipping them off. You’ve gotta love European football.
Eventually the players came out for warm ups, for announcements, and then the game began. I was saddened that Del Piero-one of my all time favorites-was not in the starting 11. As well as that Inzaghi was for Milan – not one I like. There were a few series of tricky passes in a row, but not a lot of opportunities. I was disappointed in Kaka’s play, but Beckham was delivering some nice balls. Milan easily could have been up if Inzahgi could finish. The score was 0-0 at halftime, and then all the fans around us started lighting up their cigs.
We then continued on towards the Duomo where lisa gave a 
Today we went over to a neighboring town called Varenna. It was a beautiful town, but much more traffic and busyness than Bellagio We went walking to explore the town, with an ultimate desired destination of a little beach or swimming. Although I already had stuck my hand into Lake Como, I kinda wanted to actually put my legs and/or body in. Spoiler alert: I would be denied.
We stopped at a little pizzeria, and ordered their 10E lunch special of a pizza and a salad and some frizzante water. I was a little disappointed that the pizza wasn’t exactly like I remembered. However, the pizza I ate before, was from southern Italy and perhaps it was just a difference of locale. 
We soon travelled back to Bellagio, made our way to our hotel and rested. 