I guess the best place to start would be where I left off….the train. There isn’t much to say besides that it was quite the experience. I’d say Stewart and I got to know each other a little better throughout those 14 hours. (SC Comment: Given Liz’s penchant for the dramatic, I am shocked that this is how simply she describes those harrowing 14 hours…but I digress) But its over, and we are on to the second half of our trip in Italia!
We got to Venice around 7am on Monday morning and were far from functional. Rode the water taxi to San Marco (the area our hotel is in) and dropped off our bags, before searching high and low for somewhere to grab a BIG breakfast. We found somewhere, and thank God for that coffee. I kind of lost track of time, so didn’t realize it was still 8am, and was questioning what everyone was talking about when they said “Venice is always sooooo crowded!” There was no one in site and San Marco Piazza was empty! Taking advantage of our timing, we wandered around the square for a bit and went to see a Julian Schnabel exhibit at the Fondazione Musei Civici before heading back to the hotel around 11 to see if they had our room ready.
The people were so sweet and accommodating—they even let us in 3 hours before check-in! Perfect time to finally get some rest before heading back out around lunchtime. Before I continue, I want to say that Stewart Coleman knows how to find amazing places to eat. If any of you readers are going on vacation sometime soon, and want someone to plan out your every meal—hire him! Our lunch on Monday solidified these thoughts. A hole-in-the-wall place called Al Bottegon where you walk in, chose however many chicheti’s (no idea the spelling and couldn’t find it on goggle) you want, grab a glass of wine, and eat standing up. Glass of wine: 2 Euro, 8 Chichetis: 8. Those of you that know Venice, know this is a TOTAL steal. And to top it off, it was delicious.
After lunch we walked around the point, grabbed some gelato, and headed to the Peggy Guggenheim museum. The museum is actually where she lived for the latter part of her life. She is buried in the backyard, and the inside contains a majority of her collection. Very interesting to read about her mission as an art collector, and to see it as part of her life.
Dinner on Monday was yet another great meal. A small Osteria style place off the beaten path a bit—called Enoteca ai Artisi. Initially attracted to this place after we learned it was run and operated by a old Italian and his wife. The wife did the cooking, the husband did the running. We got to sit outside on the canal and let the husband chose our wine selection for the evening. It’s been awesome getting to taste different wines from the countries we have visited, but I still cant differentiate between a chardonnay and a pinot grigio. Oh well, maybe one day.
Day 2 in Venice was gonna be a long one! Dr. Sue (Stewarts mama) has a friend from Dallas who lives part-time in a small town called Castelfranco Veneto, about an hour outside of Venice. Dr. Sue was sweet enough to hook me up with her to get some ideas on a fun day trip while we were in Venice. Literally, she planned an itinerary for us. We got to travel to Castelfranco AND Treviso and were told exactly what to do while we were there.
Got to Castelfranco around noon, and walked from the train station to the Castle. Most everything happens inside the castle walls. You will find some adorable boutiques and delicious restaurants, along with some history that was kind of hard to figure out because NOTHING was in English. I, personally, was unaware that small towns in Italy completely shut down for 3 hours during the day. We walked to about 4 different restaurants to find out every single one was closed (umm, its lunch time?) and some boutiques. I guess I just don’t understand the concept of people actually taking 3 hours of their day to go home and nap. Those of you that know me will probably realize that this sealed the deal. Hehe. We found a cute little place that looked pretty popular and parked ourselves there for a couple hours. We were told multiple times that the prosecco spritzers are famous in this part of Italia soooo… we took advantage of this information. Not being able to read the menu resulted in Stewart ordering spaghetti with tuna fish…. It was delicious though. It was hilarious listening to stewart order our food in Italian (he did a pretty impressive job). The couple times I tried ended up in me laughing at myself, or the people laughing at me. So I put that to rest pretty quickly.
After an afternoon in Castelfranco, we headed to the train to make our way to Treviso. Another town centered within castle walls—this place is idyllic. Every designer store you can imagine, adorable little boutiques, farmers markets, a million little places like Eatzi’s (only example I could think of), wine stores with cheese sitting out, and cute little people riding their bikes everywhere! I would go crazy if I lived there. We walked around for a while, checked out the different Piazza’s, and found a place to park ourselves for a little happy hour drink. Stewart and I have come to realize that we are kind of picky with our bar scene. We will not just settle, we want to find the small little hole-in-the-wall bar where the locals hang after work. And we did just that. OH and in case you were wondering, we finally found a deck of cards. So with a glass of prosecco and a deck of cards, we had a very enjoyable evening. The people of Treviso seem SO normal. All the women remind me of my mom and her friends, but with Italian accents. I would move there tomorrow.
The dinner places that Dr. Sue’s friend suggested were unfortunately all closed (when we would ask why, people would say because it is summer.) I’m telling you, these people are living the life. We stumbled into a little boutique hotel to get some help, and were directed to a delicious place called Vineria. We got to sit on a small balcony overlooking a water-mill and fast-moving canal, and enjoy some gaspacho and ragu! Making me hungry just thinking about it. Well, our day is over and we finally headed home around midnight. Phewf!
Our last few hours in Venice this AM were spent exploring a part of town we had not yet seen, Rialto. The Rialto Bridge is famous for at one point, being the first and only bridge connecting the two sides. Stewart read about a delicious little pizza place right around there called “Antico Forno,” so we HAD to try it! And it was another winner: line out the door, and 1 slice quickly turned to 2. Headed back to our hotel to grab our stuff and head to the train station to jump on a train to FIRENZE!!!! Be back soon if I haven’t made Stewart leave me in Florence for good!!!
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