NJGIRL
11-04-2009, 12:26 PM
Venice: Arrive Sunday Morning and Leave Tuesday Morning
We arrive at our Hotel which is right near the Rialto Bridge. It is the "Hotel Rialto". I have to tell you that Venice is very expensive. This hotel was listed in Frommers as a "moderate". It was $450 (US) per night! Food is Venice is also very costly. The hotel is nice and people there are very friendly. Hotels in Italy are very small and mostly privately owned (not a whole lot of chains). The lobby is small but very charming. We have real room keys with the old fashion fringe on them. You also have to give the desk your key everytime you leave the hotel. The room was much bigger than I expected due to all of the horror stories I had heard about European hotels. It had carpet on the floor(the only hotel during our whole trip that did) and the walls were cloth. The hotel was older (like everything in Venice) but very clean and cute. CNN International was the only English speaking channel we had. 99% of people we came across working in Venice spoke English very well.
Now onto what we saw during our two days there. We took a gondola ride in the Grand Canal. For the five of us it was 100 Euros. It lasted about 30 mins and was alot of fun (no singing :(). You could see fish from the boat eating stuff stuck on the side of the houses. It was so interesting to see how people's doors were right at the water. What was really interesting was that steps went well below the water line. When I questioned this I was told that the water is rising a little each year and when the city was originally built the steps started at the water line. It seems like the city is sinking. The thing I really liked during our stay here is that there are no cars. You can walk anywhere and not worry about getting run over. It also gives it a peaceful feeling.
We also did St Mark's Square & Basilica. It was just beautiful! The works of art and the artwork of the building was something I have never seen before. St Mark's tomb is also inside. You can climb to the very top and go outside for a wonderful view of the whole square and the islands next door. The view was out of this world. You get a good view of the Clock Tower from up there also. That is a work of art in itself. Loved the whole experience. This took a few hours to do.
In the square (as well as all of Venice) there are tons of vendors and cafes. We shopped alot while we were there much to my sons objections. Venice is know for it's glassworks. Murano glass is all over the place there.
From there we did the Bell Tower. You take an elevator up to the top and again another wonderful view.
Next we moved onto the Dulce Palace (as seen in Disney.. more on that later) and the Bridge of Sighs. Not only was this a palace but it also was home to the senate and courts. There were soooooooo many rooms in this place and many of them were court rooms. We toured the room where "The Terrible Ten" decided the fate of many people. The Bridge of Sighs connected the palace with the prison. The Bridge of Sigh's got it's name because it was the last view of the outside world prisoners would get before going to jail and ultimately being killed. Next we toured to jail. The cells were so small for the number of people who were crammed into them. This also took a few hours to do and we didn't stop and read everything in every room.
Now onto the food in Venice. Breakfast was included at the hotel. At breakfast Italians eat light. It was a buffet of two kinds of cereal, ham, provo cheese, and small rolls (think lunch meat sandwiches), toast (which was prepackaged melba toast the size of large crackers), some type of pastry and OJ. The OJ was made from Blood Oranges and it was red. It was very good and much sweeter than our OJ in the USA. Breakfast was light which was fine for us.
For lunch we had either pizza or Caprese Salad. I expected pizza that was much much different than ours. The pizza had very thin crust and they put olive oil on the top. This was very tasty. The Caprese Salad was also good. The cheese was better than ours. Both dishes were not that much different than what we have in the states but only more favorful.
What the Italian's lack in breakfast they make up for at dinner.Dinners were macaroni for all and it was so good. The gravy is again just tastier than ours. One thing you do have to get used to is that they serve their macaroni harder than we do. They don't cook it as long. In Italy they also eat dinner in courses. We didn't do that. As I have said before (the disney dining plan is way too much food for us day after day) we are smaller eaters. They want you to have an app, meat or fish, salad, macaroni, then dessert. That just wasn't happening with us. Servers throughout our whole trip looked at us funny when we ordered dinner and just had one course.
On a side note we had Gelati everyday here. Some people had it more than once a day! It was good. They serve it in very small cups. A large would be like 3 sccops of ice cream at home. No "Kitchen Sinks" in Italy!
We enjoyed Venice alot. While it was older looking in person than what you see in pictures I loved the whole atmosphere there.
Tuesday we took a water taxi to the train station. I was sad to leave but we were on our way to Rome. We took a 4 hour ride on the Eurostar (very fast modern train) and we were in Rome.
Next: The sights of Rome
We arrive at our Hotel which is right near the Rialto Bridge. It is the "Hotel Rialto". I have to tell you that Venice is very expensive. This hotel was listed in Frommers as a "moderate". It was $450 (US) per night! Food is Venice is also very costly. The hotel is nice and people there are very friendly. Hotels in Italy are very small and mostly privately owned (not a whole lot of chains). The lobby is small but very charming. We have real room keys with the old fashion fringe on them. You also have to give the desk your key everytime you leave the hotel. The room was much bigger than I expected due to all of the horror stories I had heard about European hotels. It had carpet on the floor(the only hotel during our whole trip that did) and the walls were cloth. The hotel was older (like everything in Venice) but very clean and cute. CNN International was the only English speaking channel we had. 99% of people we came across working in Venice spoke English very well.
Now onto what we saw during our two days there. We took a gondola ride in the Grand Canal. For the five of us it was 100 Euros. It lasted about 30 mins and was alot of fun (no singing :(). You could see fish from the boat eating stuff stuck on the side of the houses. It was so interesting to see how people's doors were right at the water. What was really interesting was that steps went well below the water line. When I questioned this I was told that the water is rising a little each year and when the city was originally built the steps started at the water line. It seems like the city is sinking. The thing I really liked during our stay here is that there are no cars. You can walk anywhere and not worry about getting run over. It also gives it a peaceful feeling.
We also did St Mark's Square & Basilica. It was just beautiful! The works of art and the artwork of the building was something I have never seen before. St Mark's tomb is also inside. You can climb to the very top and go outside for a wonderful view of the whole square and the islands next door. The view was out of this world. You get a good view of the Clock Tower from up there also. That is a work of art in itself. Loved the whole experience. This took a few hours to do.
In the square (as well as all of Venice) there are tons of vendors and cafes. We shopped alot while we were there much to my sons objections. Venice is know for it's glassworks. Murano glass is all over the place there.
From there we did the Bell Tower. You take an elevator up to the top and again another wonderful view.
Next we moved onto the Dulce Palace (as seen in Disney.. more on that later) and the Bridge of Sighs. Not only was this a palace but it also was home to the senate and courts. There were soooooooo many rooms in this place and many of them were court rooms. We toured the room where "The Terrible Ten" decided the fate of many people. The Bridge of Sighs connected the palace with the prison. The Bridge of Sigh's got it's name because it was the last view of the outside world prisoners would get before going to jail and ultimately being killed. Next we toured to jail. The cells were so small for the number of people who were crammed into them. This also took a few hours to do and we didn't stop and read everything in every room.
Now onto the food in Venice. Breakfast was included at the hotel. At breakfast Italians eat light. It was a buffet of two kinds of cereal, ham, provo cheese, and small rolls (think lunch meat sandwiches), toast (which was prepackaged melba toast the size of large crackers), some type of pastry and OJ. The OJ was made from Blood Oranges and it was red. It was very good and much sweeter than our OJ in the USA. Breakfast was light which was fine for us.
For lunch we had either pizza or Caprese Salad. I expected pizza that was much much different than ours. The pizza had very thin crust and they put olive oil on the top. This was very tasty. The Caprese Salad was also good. The cheese was better than ours. Both dishes were not that much different than what we have in the states but only more favorful.
What the Italian's lack in breakfast they make up for at dinner.Dinners were macaroni for all and it was so good. The gravy is again just tastier than ours. One thing you do have to get used to is that they serve their macaroni harder than we do. They don't cook it as long. In Italy they also eat dinner in courses. We didn't do that. As I have said before (the disney dining plan is way too much food for us day after day) we are smaller eaters. They want you to have an app, meat or fish, salad, macaroni, then dessert. That just wasn't happening with us. Servers throughout our whole trip looked at us funny when we ordered dinner and just had one course.
On a side note we had Gelati everyday here. Some people had it more than once a day! It was good. They serve it in very small cups. A large would be like 3 sccops of ice cream at home. No "Kitchen Sinks" in Italy!
We enjoyed Venice alot. While it was older looking in person than what you see in pictures I loved the whole atmosphere there.
Tuesday we took a water taxi to the train station. I was sad to leave but we were on our way to Rome. We took a 4 hour ride on the Eurostar (very fast modern train) and we were in Rome.
Next: The sights of Rome