MAJESTIC ITALY Part 2

Day 3 - Wednesday, November 14, 2001

We had intended to get up at six, but wound up waking up to the wake up call at 6:30, due to incorrectly setting our brand new travel alarm. Time to start getting dressed and everything.  Later we escaped to the cool of the lobby.  But first these interesting doorknobs, you don't turn the knob, instead there is a pushbutton on top that you push down on.  We soon made our way to the hallway, and then to the elevators.  Elevators work differently in Italy. There isn't near as much automation.  Only one group can use the elevator at any one time.  On each floor there is a single call button, and an indicator showing if the car is in-use.  If you are lucky there may also be either a direction indicator or floor indicator.  You can't call the elevator until the "In Use" or "Occupato" light goes out. When you do call it the car comes straight to your floor.  You get inside and then can only make one floor selection.  If you press more than one floor button the car will move to the last button pressed.  The floor selected will not light up; instead the lit button indicates which floor you are on.  A little confusing at first, but you'll get the hang of it.   Soon we are down enjoying the cool of the lobby. 

A bit later we are invited into the restaurant for a buffet breakfast. Breakfast here is not quite what you may be used to.  Your options are cold cereal and milk, fresh fruit, bread and rolls (not sweet), and a deli tray with ham, salami, and Swiss cheese.  Water, coffee, and juice are also available.  I can verify that Italian coffee is a lot stronger than American coffee, and that breakfast was satisfying.  I especially like the chocolate spread they had grouped along with the jellies.  We had some time to grab cameras and things from the room before getting on the bus.

Our hotel was not actually in Venice, but a suburb called Mestre. Mestre was born out of practicality.  Most citizens of Mestre consider themselves Venetians.  The reason for moving to the mainland city arose out of a lower cost of living, and avoiding the seasonal flooding problems inherent in an island city such as Venice. Our bus tour took us first to the boat dock. As I said Venice is an island city, and as such a ride by waterbus is needed.  While at the boat dock, some time was afforded for visiting the Change office, Toilettes, and a few vendors who had setup in an open-air market type arrangement.

As we had already taken care of currency exchange back in the states, and for those of you who preach not to exchange money before leaving, we only lost about $25 on the exchange by changing early, which we considered to be well worth not standing in the long exchange line here.   We instead decided to hit the restroom.  As you will find out in Europe people don't find nice ephusieums and simply call a restroom a Toilet. So we go to the toilet, enter the building and find our access back to the toilets blocked by a turnstile.  In order to pass through the turnstile, you have to buy a Toilet Ticket from a vending machine along the wall.  Tickets cost 1,000 Lire ($0.50).  You then inserted the ticket into the turnstile and were admitted. Men and Women alike to the same restroom. The boat dock restroom did have a divider down the center of the room, though some did not.  Men on one side of the divider. The public toilet was extremely clean and well kept up. After doing business we passed through the exit turnstile into a snack bar.  We then started looking through the vendor's booths as we had time to kill. We saw some neat looking stuff but decided to buy stuff towards the end of the day.  What we did notice though was that the cold wind was cutting right through us even with coats on.  We spotted a few tour members with Venice jackets on over their coats.  Last stall on the left. Thank You. All I will say is that one clothing vendor did a very brisk business in the brisk air.  55,000 Lire each later we had another layer of jacket ($27.50) and we feel much better now. We then regrouped with our guide to be led to our private boat.  We noted the boat dock was wet and some water was spurting up between the planks.  High Tide. Gotcha.  Our boat was a bit of a walk down the dock, past the public transit dock, and a good way into the charter boat section.  The first athletic exercise of the day was boarding the boat up a gangplank that must have been at a 60-degree angle.  Luckily we all made it and were soon seated at tables looking out windows. 

As we were taking our boat ride to Venice we learned that the tide had completely covered the boat dock on the island so we would go to Venice "the long way".  This allowed us to see more of Venice from our boat as we circled the city of islands. Also along our boat ride we were given the chance to sign up for the optional gondola ride.  The gondola ride is an integral attraction of Venice that was not included in the base price of the tour.  A small discount was arranged for our group, which took the cost of a gondola ride down from 60,000 lire ($30) to 50,000 lire ($25).  Mom and I as well as about 80% of our group opted to purchase the gondola tickets.  Our circle tour of Venice by boat continued and eventually we made our way around to the boat dock.  As we approached the boat dock we were informed that we may want to roll up our pants legs.  The dock was still under water.  We docked, made our way down the steep decline and started to walk across the wet dock.  Wet dock meaning about 4-5 inches of water.  Some took their shoes and socks off, and reported back that the water was very cold. Upon reaching the street of the city, we spotted a thin stretch of dry land to perch ourselves on.  At this point a local vendor started offering plastic boots for sale  (16,000 Lire or $8).  It was time for the gamble, do you buy the boots then have to lug them around all day if it dries up, or do you not buy the boots and suffer the consequences.  Though a good number of our group purchased the boots, we opted to go without and suffer the consequences.  We had to wade through but only about 2 or 3 more deep pockets of water, and then we would be high and dry the rest of the day.  Not even squishy shoes!   We made our way from the boat dock by the Hotel Gabriel to the Piazza de San Marco.  About halfway there the streets became completely flooded, but we were saved by Venetian ingenuity.  In Venice they have constructed a set of temporary boardwalks on scaffolding that they set up when the town gets flooded. They are about 1.75 people wide, and have no railings.  Upon these boards people carefully edge their way around town to their destination. 

Carefully we made our way to San Marco Square and stood on the shopping promenade across from San Marcos Church.  The entire square resembled a giant swimming pool.  Here our guide informed us of how extremely lucky we are to see Venice flooded.  According to our guide Venice is only flooded 3 times a year.  As Venice is in a lagoon of the Adriatic Sea, it is dependant on the lunar tides.  Today's strong lunar tide, combined with brisk winds caused the entire town to flood.  Supposedly, a most rare sight.  We also saw from the outside the Doge's Palace, which is now a museum, but used to be the seat of the government, San Marco Cathedral, and the bell tower.  For those familiar with EPCOT, the Doges Palace is the building the Italian restaurant in EPCOT's Italy pavilion is patterned after, and so is the bell tower.  The two really do stand next to each other in real Italy. However just like EPCOT's bell tower, the bell tower in Venice is also a reproduction as the original tower was destroyed in the early 1900's and rebuilt. We then made our way inside San Marco which took some time as to get to the proper boardwalk we had to go all the way back to the Doges Palace along the Grand Canal.  Really these walkways need some one-way signs.  We resorted to sidestepping to slowly make our way round to the side door of San Marcos. Upon entering the church I note the vestibule to be flooded as well.  We were told that Venice is building a series of mechanical floodgates to prevent occurrences such as today; unfortunately this project is just beginning to be built. We make our way into the church proper which is high and dry.  The Greek cross shape is called to our attention, as all of the branches of the cross are of the same length, as opposed to most churches where you have the one longer branch of the cross.  Also brought to our attention are the golden mosaics of the church as well as other church art.  Our stop here is a brief one, and we make our way past the sacristy and out the back door of the church.  We then walk down some streets that are all dry. Our next stop is the Moreno Glass Factory.  Venetian glass is quite popular, and we are scheduled to see a demonstration.  We are quickly rushed through the shop and up the stairs to go to the demonstration room.  Here we get to awe as the glassblower starts with a hunk of molten glass out of the oven (1800degrees F) and proceeds to make a vase out of it right before our eyes, skillfully using tools to make the handles and all.  A very good demonstration, then the vase was put into a cooling oven to slowly bring the vase down to room temperature, otherwise it would shatter.  The cooling oven starts at 1,000degrees F) and is then shut off so it very slowly cools down to room temperature in a 24 hour cycle. We are then led up to the third floor for a demonstration and exhibition of their work.  It was explained that red is the most expensive color because it contains pure gold, and then we were shown some sculpture work that is not blown, it is carved, some table service items (that would spend most of their life in a china closet) and how to tell if a piece is genuine. (Hint: if it is stamped with the company logo, it is a forgery, as they don’t stamp their logo) Then some rather startling demonstrations were given including dropping a glass from a few inches above the table, banging it on a hard surface and other tricks.  We are convinced that the demonstrator knows just where to strike the piece.  Whether their work is that durable, or the exhibitor is a good illusionist it's still a good show.  Then came time to mention prices.  At $50 for one glass, (or $350 for the set of 6 glasses and pitcher), we knew this stuff was out of our spending bracket.  Mind you it was extremely beautiful.   We were then told to follow the Exit signs.  With some clever gates, strategic signage, etc. it was designed so that to exit the factory tour you had to pass through every single room of their Factory Outlet Store.  Some free time was given to take a rest, shop their store, and use the toilet before going to lunch.

Lunch was at the Las Angeles (The Angels) Ristorante.  We were shown upstairs to a private room.  Lunch was to start with a Mostacolli pasta, followed by a plate with a pork chop, baked potato wedges, and spinach.  I had a Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke) with my meal and was just mentioning how I was looking forward to having some Gelati, when desert was announced.   Dessert would be gelati, a dip of strawberry and a dip of rich chocolate.  As I would learn Gelati is merely Italian for ice cream and not some fancy concoction that PKI came up with.  But it’s not quite the same as ice cream; it’s a different texture to it.

After lunch we had some free time, but decided that it wasn't enough to do anything before our time appointed group gondola ride.  We decided to walk along the shopping promenade of San Marcos Plaza and we shocked to find the entire plaza DRY.  Not just no water, but DRY bricks.  If not for the temporary scaffold walkways, which now looked absurd, you would not have known it was flooded this morning. While waiting for our guide we discovered that the Italian police don't carry pistols, instead they prefer to carry rifles.   Must be a European thing, as both London's Gatwick and Venice's Marco Polo Airport were guarded by guards wielding machine guns, walking around finger-on-trigger.  Anyway, after being in awe over the now dry piazza, it was soon time to be led to the gondola dock.  We were informed that our guide wouldn't be making the trip but she pointed out key landmarks to find our way back. 

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