18/9/2010 - Venezia - Italia at last!!!After a sleepless night topped off by getting up at 3 AM, a 130 euro cab ride, and a short flight, we're finally in Italy! Add a bus ride from the Marco Polo airport to Piazzale Roma, where we caught a vaporetto - right number, wrong direction. We got straightened out, and eventually made it to our hotel, Albergo San Samuele. It's perfect, in a quieter neighborhood that actually feels like a neighborhood, and located really close to a vaporetto stop and a traghetto point, so once we were going the right direction, it was really quick and easy to find. Our corner room is a beautiful, with two door-sized windows that open onto mini balconies - you could set stuff out on them, but you really couldn't stand on them, so there's great light and a bucolic view of the little calle we're on.
It was really tempting to just stay in our room all day - it's drizzling and cold outside, and neither of us slept last night due to paranoia about oversleeping and missing our taxi and subsequently our flight. But I had gotten 12 hour passes for the vaporetti so we could go out to the other islands in the lagoon, so after a quick nap and a semi-futile attempt to freshen up and feel more like humans and less like zombies, we ate a so-so lunch at the trattoria across the street and made a quick stop in the alimentari nearby for provisions (including pesto, some Baci, juice, meat, cheese, yogurt, and fruit, we just needed to find some bread), we layered on ALL our cold-weather clothes, including the gloves I thought I'd never need when I threw them in my bag, and headed out in the pouring rain to catch the vaporetto to Piazza San Marco, where we would get the vaporetto to Murano. After a quick pass through Piazza San Marco (crowded even in the rain), and caught the #5 vaporetto to Murano.
A quick note about language at this point - I had been concerned about starting our trip in Spain before ending up in Italy in regards to my grasp of Italian. I've spoken Spanish for 10+ years and have spoken it in many real life situations for travel and work, so it's well rooted in my memory. Italian is a much more recent acquisition, I've only been studying it for about 2 1/2 years and have never spoken it in a real life situation outside of a classroom, so I was worried that a week in Spain, speaking Spanish, would push all my Italian out of my brain. The languages are similar enough that it's pretty easy to get them tangled up if you know both, and I've certainly mixed them up in Italian class where I'm suddenly speaking Spanish instead of Italian. And let me tell you, sleep deprivation has the exact opposite effect of alcohol for loosening the tongue when speaking a foreign language.
After a fairly terrifying, rainy, miserable boat ride across the lagoon, we arrived on a deserted island. No barkers trying to entice us into their shops to see a glass blowing demonstration, no tour groups, nothing that a person typically associates with Murano. We explored a bit, Geoffrey played some table tennis with some sullen Venetian teenagers in a park while we used one of the few free bathrooms in Venice. We walked to the end of the island and got a good look at the storm clouds heading our way across the choppy, grey water.
The end of the world, or at least the sidewalk, on Murano
We were freezing and decided it was time to head back before we got swept out to sea, so we walked back to catch the boat. We took a detour to visit the Basilica dei Santi Maria e Donato, a gorgeous church that was as deserted as the island itself, that had a very un-touristy feel to it - notices about upcoming church events, choir practice notice, that sort of regular church thing.
Basilica dei Santi Maria e Donato on Murano
After another long, stormy journey back to Venice via a different route that put us on land by the train station, we stopped for a coffee and gelato break (my first in Italy - chocolate & coconut, pretty good for a place so close to the station). We caught another vaporetto back to the hotel (after our detour this morning, no matter how confident I am that we have the right one, I ask before we hop on to make sure) and enjoyed a picnic dinner in our room, listened to our audio book before turning in early. Benvenuto ad Italia!!
