Sojourn a journey through life

Venice, Italy

17-July
Ahhhh, Venice. Indeed. Carly and I have had a fantastic time in Venice. The city is without question a bit of a magical place, quite unlike any other city we've been to. Both of the guidebooks that we have basically say that "if you don't get lost in Venice, you're not doing it right." Despite this, we had a great map that led us easily to the B&B we were staying in - a super awesome place run by Sandra and Leonardo. We stayed in their house in an "attic room" that is beautifully decorated, and thankfully air-conditioned given that temperatures seemed to float between 37-40 degrees with very high humidity.

The rest of our first afternoon involved a bottle of Spumante (Italian equivalent of Champagne) on a rooftop terrace overlooking the city, some gelato (of course) and unfortunately, a terrible dinner a the not-so-pleasurable "Pleasure Cafe" (warning: avoid). To get rid of the terrible dinner food from our palates, we decided we'd happily have ourselves another gelato.

View from our rooftop balcony at the B&B where we stayed.

Fruit and Veggie stalls in Venice

Gondola

Sandra and Leonardo prepare a fabulous breakfast. Coffee, fresh-squeezed orange juice, fresh-baked cakes and pastries, cheese and cold cuts, breads, and all sorts of goodness. After breakfast we began wandering the streets. We picked up our train tickets that would take us to Innsbruck in a few days time, and decided to "get lost". We basically just wandered through the alleys, over bridges, through little tunnels and squares for hours before we found ourselves at the magnificent San Marco square. Stuff on the square is insanely expensive, Espresso running you €5.00, a Cappuccino €8.20. This compared to another amazing little coffee shop close to our B&B which ran €0.70 for an Espresso and €1.20 for a Cappuccino.

Walking the streets provides no end of amazing little shops with hand-made carnivale masks and fantastic glassware made on the little island of Murano just off the coast of Venice.

San Marco Square

On the 19th of July, we set off for a day trip to Burano and Murano - two islands off the coast of Venice. After paying €13.00 each for a 12-hour Vaporetto ticket (the Venice equivalent of a public bus system, 'cept with boats) we headed off.

Burano is famous for lacework, while Murano is famous for glass-blowing. Walking around the small island of Burano with its bright colors and quaint bridges was really a great time, and stopping by the glass-blowing factory of Formia on Murano was also really amazing. Being able to stand there and watch is fabulous.

Canal on the island of Burano, about 40 minutes from Venice

Houses on Burano

Glass blowing on Murano island (about 5-10 minutes from Venice)

Our last day in Venice was mostly a day of wandering and relaxing. Carly and I split up in the morning to do a bit of shopping on our own. While Carly was off looking for pusrses and whatnot, I wanted to try my luck at heading to the Jeweler where we brought Carly's new ring to be sized. The side story here: In Rome, since some @&$%# stole all our stuff in Tel Aviv (including Carly's wedding ring, and another ring I had bought her when we first started dating, WAAAYYYY back in the day) - we stopped at various Jewelry shops trying to find a simple replacement for Carly's wedding band so she could have a ring to wear. She found one that she really liked, and we bought it, but didn't have enough time to have it sized in Rome. Venice was the first place we found where someone would be able to size the ring before we left, but even so, it wasn't supposed to be ready until the 21st. While Carly was out shopping, I stopped by the shop and the ring happened to be ready. This was great news for me, because Carly is darn near impossible to surprise for anything. After picking up the ring, I found a shop that sold little necklaces with glass hearts on them, made in Murano of course, so I picked one of those up and slipped the ring on the necklace along with the heart, and tucked it in the side pocket on my shorts.

We found each other around 1pm and I left Carly to wander for a few more minutes while I ran to check my email, and when I got back she had just finished witnessing a bit of a brawl. A tall-skinny guy was running past her, with a short-stocky guy chasing after him. The short-stocky guy tackled the tall-skinny guy to the ground, and after they both got up, the short-stocky guy head-butted the tall-skinny guy in the face. Carly's impression was that the tall-skinny guy had stolen something from a shop, and we sat and waited there, watching until the cops came, heard the story from the short-stocky guy and then dragged the tall-skinny guy away. All in a day's work.

Good looking girl, funny looking man

In the evening, Carly and I got dressed up for a nice dinner out, and headed to the Jewish Ghetto where our guidebook recommended a great restaurant. The evening could not have been more perfect - the square was very quiet, the evening was cooling off, and we ate outside on the square with only a few other couples. Dinner was slow, long and fantastic. After dinner, in a re-enactment of the way I gave Carly her first ring, I reached for her under the table (but the table was too long for me to reach her) - so I told her to hold my hand. She seemed a bit hesitant, so I said "it's very important". She reached for my hand and I put the end of the necklace into her hand. She had to pull it away from me until she found what was on the other end - the heart and the ring - and gave me a great opportunity to ask her to marry me, again. Lucky for me she said yes, I'm glad she hasn't changed her mind. All in all, a perfect evening, and a perfect way to end our time in Venice.

Carly on a nice little bridge

Good looking girl (again!)

We had people tell us they loved Venice, and people tell us they couldn't stand it. To be honest, I don't know how you couldn't love the place. We had an absolutely magnificent time. Tomorrow we head off to Innsbruck in Austria for a change in culture, scenery and hopefully cooler weather.