May 12, 2022
The road maps for Venice were not made by AAA, and Google Maps keeps changing its mind and doing the dreaded “recalculating.” We started out this morning for San Marco Piazza to go the Doge’s Palace. Google said it was an 11 minute walk from here. It turned out to be an hour, with as I said above, multiple recalculations. Coming back the advertised time was also 11 minutes and we did it in 15. Go figure.
Oh, I’m ahead of myself. We decided to take baths before we went out. I climbed into the tub and took my shower, no big deal. Trying to help Bonnie into the tub was another thing. It is a small tub with a high side. We got her left leg in, but the right leg wouldn’t cooperate. So that made a shower in front of the sink. I am sure she will have more details.
Our main goal for going to San Marco was to tour the Doge’s Palace as we said yesterday. When we were here in 2019 it was 50 euros per person to get in, so we passed. Today it was 25 per person, and they had a discounted rate for 13 each. I inquired. It was for old people. We added audio guides for 5 euros each, and had to surrender an I.D. so we wouldn’t steal them (they were iPhones, so no danger of that). Mom gave her driver’s license. She wouldn’t let me get them my passport, but at the end of the day, we got her license back.
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| Court yard |
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| A walkway that circles the second floor. |
Part of the tour took us through the prison area where many opponents of the Doge were confined and executed over the centuries. And we walked over “The Bridge of Sighs,” the last glimpse of freedom the condemned saw.
One of our detours took us by the Rialto Bridge. I am not sure how we did it, but Google took us to the opposite side from where we started and we saw it from a new angle.
Out in the square, finally, we did a little souvenir shopping. Mom found one shirt she liked that was 20 euros because it was “made in Italy.” I said, “No thanks,” and turned away. The guy said, “10.” I said, “Okay.” His partner walked up and said, “No, it’s 15.” I gave it back to her and we walked away. Eventually she found one she wanted. I was going to buy a baseball style cap that said Venezia on it, but I forgot. Maybe another day. We did see a great chocolate fountain.
When we got back to the flat, Bonnie studied the map, and found a direct route out to the vaporetto stop to go to the airport. While waiting for a table at dinner we walked it, and it seems good. We are going to make a practice run to the airport, and check on the Covid test out there. We’ll let you know.
Supper tonight was a big salad that we shared. Mom had spaghetti with tomato sauce and I had spaghetti carbonara. Tomorrow pork chops and French fries.
I’m done. Another version of today’s events follows.
Love,
Dad/Pappy/David
* * * * *
Well, we got up about 7. I still had a load of laundry ( shirts and pants mostly mine) to do. So I stuffed it into the washer adding the tide detergent I had brought with me.
I sat it at lower temp and it said only 1 hour and 22 minutes till done. After that he was ready for breakfast, so I made pancetta, eggs and toast. I had some juice and a cup of hot chocolate. Then, he went to take his bath and I washed up the dishes. By that time the wash was done so I got out the clothes pins and fixed the clothes lines and hung out the laundry. Whoopee!! Then, it was my turn for a bath. Well, I got my left leg over the side (the bottom of the tub is very slick) but when I tried to lift my right leg up and over it said no. It just won’t bend or come up high enough to get into the tub/shower. The top is at least 2 and half feet from the floor. I am very frustrated because the Italians do not know what a wash cloth is. So here I stand in the bathroom in front of the sink with a scrungee trying to take a bath. It was not a pretty sight. I washed the major parts getting water everywhere. I am not sure what I am going to do to wash my hair. Your Dad said the kitchen sink but because of the arthritis in my neck, I don’t know if I can get my head down. It may just stay dirty till I get home.
Well, after that we headed off to San Marco Square. We were following a combination of google maps and signs on the wall. We found the Rialto Bridge before we got to the square. It was not too crowded but we decided not to go across.
We did finally manage to find San Marco Square. It was pretty crowded. We saw a long line at the church waiting to get into it. They have scaffolding all around its front doing repairs on it. The entrance and path through it are very narrow. They let you in for free, but they have everything of interest blocked off and you have to pay a separate cost for each room you want to go through. A real ripoff.
We looked at the stands of t-shirts etc in the square. Then, headed to the Doge Palace. There was a line on one side for prepaid tickets, which we didn’t have so we got in the line to buy tickets. It was a pretty long line , it probably took us 30 minutes to get to the head of the line. They only let in a couple of people at a time. You had to put your stuff in a tray have it wand as we walk through a scanner. Oh course it went off but they just ignored it and we went on into the ticket office. We asked for 2 senior tickets, which are for 65 and older, and only paid 13 each. But then they got 10 more out of us for the audios. They were actually pretty good tapes. The narrator spoke very clear English and it was interesting and told us about some of the things we were seeing and what the different rooms were used for. In one area they had a large number of rooms containing swords, spears, shields and all kinds of weapons. There was even 2 horses in a glass area . Hey looked real to me. There was even one unusual cannon. Oh course we took a picture for Mac. They also had several rooms with different types earthenware and pottery.
Well, after all the pretty stuff we headed to the prison area. It was down under and was very depressing looking. Huge wooden doors and bars on small windowless rooms in the basement. There were several floors. After that we had to wind around and around and around and up and around till we found the place to return the audios and retrieve my license and exit. The one hard thing about the palace was the huge number of staircases that went up and up . To get to every floor there were a large number steps. Going up was bad but coming back down was worse. A lot of the passages especially in the prison were very narrow so people would get stuck behind us. I was slow going and there was no way for them to pass. When we would get to a spot for them to go around they were rushing by as if we were a bother. But they too shall be old some day.
After exiting we needed to find our way back. Venice is not a city with direct paths to anything. You will be walking on one street and come to a bend and all of a sudden you are on some other street. It was a struggle but we made it. We rewarded ourselves with a gelato and then went home to nap. I did not sleep. He did. After he got up, I got out the maps we had and the map Danielle had given us and started to investigate how we are going to get to the boat to the airport. I found 2 ways that are pretty much straight through. We are going to do a practice run tomorrow. When we leave on Monday the 23 we will be taking our suitcases. Yeah!
I also took in my laundry which was dry. I plan to do no more washing. Things will just have to come home dirty. He and I both have enough underwear for the duration and our trip home and that is all you really need.
After nap we took our grocery bag and headed to the store. We needed still water, milk, eggs, bread, pancetta, coke zero and I got some juice. We carried our stuff back and headed to the restaurant for supper.
Well, that is all for tonight. Miss you all. Say a prayer for our old St Mark pastor, Linda, heard from her today and she has Covid. She went to a high school reunion last week and 2 of the 9 people she went to dinner with got it.
Love Mom, Granny and Bonnie
Just a note to all you future travelers in Venice, if you are walking down one of streets, whether wide or narrow, and see a spot with a small puddle along the wall and the wall wet just above it then know that a dog has recently been there. There are a lot of people who have dogs. Some are small and some are huge. And they walk them every where and the leave their marks. Some leave more solid reminders of their presence. So be careful where you walk.
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