THE RIALTO BRIDGE

October 24, 2019


It was 9:30 when we went to bed last night, and except for the usual nighttime journeys, we slept until the alarm went off at 8:00 this morning.  I reckon we were tired.

The hotel serves breakfast from 8-10:30, so that gave us time to shower and prepare for our wanderings.  It is a very good buffet with many selections, and the option to have fresh scrambled eggs or omelets.  And they brewed me some decaf coffee.  We just did the buffet this morning, but tomorrow we’re going to ask for some special creations.

There are four bridges that cross the Grand Canal and so far we have crossed two of them.  The Academia Bridge yesterday and the Rialto Bridge today.  The Academia is very close to the Pisani Palace (our lodgings) and we did that after checking in yesterday.  Today we went to the Rialto, not arriving in time to visit the fresh outdoor market there.  It is, I am told, a large fish market, which would not interest my traveling companion in the least, but it would have been fun to see.

We have a couple of maps, one I bought from our friends at Amazon.com and one that our friends here at the hotel gave us.  But they are printed with very small letters, and difficult for an old orienteer to read.  However, we came equipped with Elena 2, the GPS on my phone.  I programmed in the Pisani Palace so we can get back from wherever we go, and I told her to take us to the Rialto.  After stumbling around a bit, and making one unnecessary circle, I figured it out and we got there and back in good stead.

Along the way we stopped at the Church of St. Stephen, a second smaller chapel dedicated to the Archangel Michael, and a Music Museum.  Venice has collected an incredible selection of old musical instruments and they are on display in several places (we actually saw two music museums).  There was a viola that dated before 1600 and a collection of clarinets which are over 300 years old, and much more besides – including some very antique keyboard instruments.

On the way back we chanced upon one of the sites that I had wanted to see, and what a beautiful stop it was.  We spent several hours touring the Teatro La Fenice – the Phoenix Theater.  It is one of the premier theaters in Venice, and for seven years was the home of Maria Callas, one of opera’s great divas.  It has burned down at least twice, hence the name Phoenix – the mythical creature who rises from its own ashes.  We toured many rooms and sat in the Royal Box.  A great architectural treat.

Once again we had dinner on a square – this time in Campo Santo Stefano.  A leisurely meal, the kind that I enjoy.  And it was neat watching the people go by as we were sitting outside eating.  A little boy of two or three was pushing himself through on a small scooter and another boy was just playing in the square.  An American couple seated behind us were having a spirited discussion, and he kept telling her, “But you are denying the logic of what I am saying!”  I quoted Dr. McCoy in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan – “Logic!  Logic!  You’re talking about universal Armageddon!”  They didn’t hear me.  I was surprised when Mom talked about the folly of speaking logically to a woman.

For some unknown reason, I cannot get the pictures off my phone to show you tonight.  Yesterday all I did was email them to myself, and today the emails just que up.  Oh well.  Sorry.

Well, before I turn the keyboard over to her, I will tell all of you who enquired after my leg cramps that I went to a local drugstore and bought compression socks.  One bout like last night is enough, thank you very much.

Well, TTFN

Well, before I tell you about today , I will tell you a humorous story from last night. When we had gotten back to the room, I was resting on the couch. I heard the sound of someone taking a bath in a bathtub with great sounds of splashing. Upon commenting to David he said it wasn’t a man taking a bath but the waves of the canal hitting the building outside beneath the window. I laughed because I really thought I was hearing someone bathe.

Now to stories about flying. The flights from Charlotte and Chicago were fine. I even managed to sleep on both. The one from Chicago began with a small infant crying loudly for over 40 minutes. He even started before the plane had moved. But he did finally get quiet and slept the rest of the 9 hour trip.

The boat ride from the airport was very interesting. It was a speed boat and he was traveling at a high rate of speed. Flying over the waves made by the many other ships coming toward us . It was an interesting ride. When we arrived at the hotel the boat pulled up to the edge of the canal and the hotel let out a ramp. The boatman pulled out a pair of steps and up we went and across the ramp. How interesting. They passed all the heavy luggage up and then I thought they might lift me up and over too.

It is a nice room. It is what was at one time a very large house. There are at least three floors, including a salon on top where they have a restaurant and we get our breakfast. There are over 10 rented rooms. Each room has a name and a key with a large tassel attached to it. So You hopefully won’t lose it. You turn your key into the desk anytime you go out. When you go out the second entrance to the house if you turn left you will walk into the canal so you turn right and wander through several turns and passages and you come out at a large building on the right that is the music conservatory. We can hear students practicing music all day. We have heard the piano, flute and others.

Contrary to my better halfs comments, I did not sleep straight through. I awoke at 3 and played on my kindle for an hour before returning to the bed and sleeping to 8. Breakfast was good. Too many options to tell but I had eggs, toast, yogurt, dried fruit granola mix and cheese. Orange juice to drink. I am going to ask for hot chocolate tomorrow. I don’t know whether they have it or not. They even have a juicer set up with fresh oranges and you can make yourself fresh squeezed oj. They also have a honeycomb set up and fresh honey draining out of it.

Yes we did wander around! But it was all enjoyable. We had over 14000 steps that is over 5 and a half miles. The temperature at 10:30 was 61. It didn’t get much warmer than that. He had on a couple of layers but I just had on my t shirt. I may take my sweater tomorrow. Most of the times the very narrow streets are crowded. There are very many small bridges to cross as you wander through the streets as there are many side canals. There no cars or vehicles of any type. Things are transported either on boats on the canal or on hand trucks pushed up and down the streets and bridges. We even saw an amazon package on one of the hand trucks. The Rialto bridge is just a bridge. It is big but not massive. Everywhere in the area around the bridge and going to the bridge are shops. You see anything you could imagine and stuff you would never imagine. Lots of clothes, shoes, pottery, glassware and more. One store has a window of powder for making all different colors of paints. I saw several stores where you could buy sealing wax and seal markers and many had quill like pens with old ink type tips. Lots of leather pocket book stores.  Last night we saw Louis Vauton, Gucci, and many high end stores that I couldn’t even begin to look in. There are pizza stores  by the slice, gelato and sweet rolls everywhere.

The theater today was amazing. We spent about 2 hours walking up and down steps looking at it and listening to a little recorder talk about it. It had burned down in 1836 and 1996 if I remember correctly. Each time it was rebuilt as much as they could to exactly the same way. There are still some parts that were not burned from the 1996 that were still left and used.

We actually saw two small churches that contained the musicals instruments. Some as old as 400 years. The wooden clarinets and oboes from the 1600 and 1700 hundreds were amazing. In the one church they had a workshop set up where you could see how they would have built the stringed instruments along with examples of the original tools and parts.  One of the churches is still a church being used for a church.

Well, there is much more to tell. Tomorrow will be interesting because there is a one day strike of all gondola and boats. There will be no riding either. They are supposed to run an early route of the boats that carry people to and from work and then a late one at the end of the day. But there will be no rides for tourists. We want to go and see what the canal is going to be like.  I shall report more on this tomorrow. 

For now I will end my tale. Love you all. Girls be careful at the ladies retreat and have a fun time. 

Mom, Granny and Bonnie