Friday September 20th, 2013 Venice, Italy

Having stayed up until midnight last night we both had excellent night’s sleep so hopefully we won't be jet lagged today.

Breakfast is included in the room rate at the Violino, so we headed down and helped ourselves at the typical European buffet. Sandra was disappointed that the self-service espresso machine had been removed from the breakfast room since our last visit; but she perked up when we realized that the waiter was making lattes to order at the bar.  The quality and quantity of the breakfast was very good - with a wide variety of hot and cold items to satisfy the broad range of international guests. Primed for the days we set out to explore Venice.

Pre-trip research indicated that the Gallerie Del'Accademia would be worth a visit - this is an art gallery and museum with a focus on Venetian and other Italian renaissance painters. We had pre-booked our tickets (15 Euros) - this is highly advisable as the museum can get very busy, note also that the tickets are for a set time as they only permit a fixed number of customers into the gallery at one time. Unfortunately photography was not allowed in the gallery so I can't share any of the spectacular images. This disappointment was somewhat offset by the special Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit - including the fascinating and famous Vitruvian Man or Study of the Proportions of Man (I grabbed an image from the website).. 

This ink on paper drawing is surprisingly small - only about 10 inches wide and about 15 inches tall. We also learned that although the museum owns this work it is rarely displayed. I was fascinated by the text on this, and other, Leonardo works; I had read that the artist recorded all of his notes in a code of his own making and that he wrote backwards - it's really true, you can see it on this drawing (there's nothing like a healthy dose of renaissance paranoia).

Many of the other works in the gallery are of a religious nature and after a while they begin to blur together - there's only so many Madonna’s Con Bambino's I can take in a day. 

Time for a cappuccino, one of our favorite things to do in Italy. We found a nice small cafe facing the canal, sat outside watching the people and boats go by, the weather was beautiful, the coffee was great, so we just soaked it all in. While waiting for the bill to arrive I began to develop a new economic theory; I postulate that the wealth of a nation (as represented by say it's gross domestic product) is strongly correlated to the average waiter response time of that nation - I'm hoping this work will finally lead to that elusive Nobel Prize I've been hankering after.

We'd heard about a place where you can still watch the Venetian gondola builders at work, and it was only a short walk from our cafe in the Zattere area along the Rio d Trovaso canal. Also in this area is a small cafe / bar that serves the Italian equivalent of Tapas called Cicchetti - the place is called Osteria Al Squero, and we had it on our list based on pre-trip research. Unfortunately we were between meals (unusual for us) but based on our observations, it is a definite - maybe for lunch tomorrow.

Wandered the length of the Fondamenta Zattere, the path along the Canale della Giudecca, we made our way to the point directly across the Grand Canal from St. Mark's Square. Along the way we experienced some great Venetian neighborhoods, complete with laundry hanging from the high balconies. An old man out walking his poodle caught Sandra's attention and they exchanged a few words, neither knowing what the other had said but both in agreement about the cuteness of the dog.

The Church of Santa Maria della Salute is located in this area so we spent a little time exploring this spectacular building that was erected by the city fathers in 1651 in an effort to ward off the plague that had ravaged the area.

Lunch was a couple of slices of pizza procured at a walk-up window selected based on the size of the crowd waiting in line (this is always a good indicator). We sat on the steps of St. Georges church in a small piazza eating our pizza and soaking in the atmosphere - all this for 7 Euros! (Can you believe I got piazza and pizza in the same sentence).

Next it was time to get lost. 

Getting lost in Venice is one of our favorite things to do; we headed in the general direction of the Realto Bridge but somehow ended up at the train station (get a map and you'll see why this is seriously off course). Along the way we stopped for some cold refreshments at a cafe curiously called Las Ramblas (which is in Barcelona!). This detour worked out fine as we were able to get the vaporetto (water bus) down the entire length of the Grand Canal and back to St Mark's Square - something that was on our list of things to do anyway. The vaporetto ride is perhaps the best 7 Euros you can spend in Venice - think of it as a mini-cruise as opposed to a bus ride.

So we've been chilling out for a few hours back in our hotel room with a bottle of Prosecco and a bag of crisps (chips for our American friends). Tonight we are heading to a restaurant we visited twice on our last trip - we hope it's as good as last time.

Just back from a 2 1/2-hour dinner at Da Mario Alla Fava restaurant - it was a great night. We both opted for the traditional Venetian tasting menu which came with 4 courses, with several options to choose from for each course. Being Venice there is a heavy seafood influence which is not normally a problem for us - with perhaps the exception of squid. All the food was cooked and executed perfectly - and served by the same staff from back in 2010 when we last visited. 

The final course was a challenge for Sandra, and even me - and I eat anything (well not Durian - that nappy smelling fruit delicacy from Malaysia); the course was billed as fried fish with vegetables - what they really meat was fired seafood, and it was heavy on the squid and calamari. The staff had been so nice, and Sandra just did not want to offend them - so she carefully removed the calamari one piece at a time into a napkin in her purse. This operation of course had to be performed when the attentive staff had their backs turned. Somehow, she got away with it, but Ithink she'll have a hard time bringing that purse back into our house without the cats mauling it.