Thursday September 19th, 2013 Venice, Italy

Nine and a half hours from San Francisco to Amsterdam followed by a two-hour layover then one hour and twenty minutes got us into Marco Polo Airport at Venice around 1:15PM - ah the wonders of modern travel. Our bags came through in about ten minutes, which was great, and we set off for the water taxi stand - about a ten-minute walk. Although expensive at 110 Euros, we feel that this low stress, door to door service is well worth it after such a long flight. The "water taxi" is actually a sizable motor launch with lots of wood, brass, and power - and an open stern (that's me slipping in the nautical terms) that makes for great viewing as you approach the city.

We checked into our hotel, the Violino D'Oro (I think that means golden fiddle), without any problems and were unpacking by 3PM. The Violino is a small hotel, located about 2 minutes from St. Mark’s Square - right on a canal, this old hotel is a real gem with high ceilings, rich furnishings, crown molding, chandeliers, and attentive service. This is the second time we've stayed at this hotel, and this time we have a room overlooking the canal - we'll see how this goes, as there is a gondola service point (the place where people get on and off), right below our window. We've only been here a few hours, but we've already heard most of the classic Italian operas several times over.

Free WiFi - woo-hoo!

In order to fight the sleep deprivation we wandered the streets and finally found a typical cafe on one of the hundreds of piazzas. We sat for an hour snacking on mozzarella, prosciutto, melon, and bread while quaffing a few cold beverages - this is starting to feel like a vacation. 

Jet lag can be a really bad experience while on vacation if you don't control it. At about 6PM we gave up and decided to take a nap - this is a risky venture and could lead to an upset body clock for days to come. However we forced (well Sandra did) ourselves out of bed at 8PM and headed out for dinner.

Pasta, wine, cheese, limoncello at an out of the way little place (RISTORANTE ALLA BORSA) followed by gelato in St. Mark's Square listening to the quartets playing under a full moon - this is hard to beat. We've made it to almost midnight, so hopefully we can get a good sleep and sync-up our  body clocks in the morning.