More about Italy

Venice



Rialto

Our second day in Firenze, we slept in a little bit. Up in time for hard rolls, coffee, OJ, and cereal provided by the hotel. Zane was hoping that a continental breakfast meant that they brought waffles and bacon and eggs to your bed when you woke up. Nice dream kiddo.

Before too long, it was time to head for the Galleria della Academia. The artwork has been on display here since 1784. Even the museum is a museum! Shaunda had pre-arranged reserved tickets, which cost more, but helped us miss a long line. The first statuary you are treated to are some of Michealangelo’s unfinished marble sculptures – the Four prisoners. They seem to be trying to escape the marble in which they are entombed! Shaunda heard a tour guide tell a group that Michelangelo believed that each block of marble had it’s own personage, and it was his job as the artist to enable the personage to escape. But then you see David. Zane was struck by the detail – the veins, his Adam’s apple... He is so tall – 17 feet! Historic oils are on all the walls – scenes such as Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac. Further in, the antiquity level continues to rise as you see a crucifix from the 14^th century and other religious art that is even older – some dating from the 1200’s. On the way upstairs, you are treated to a collection of Russian icons. Gray was starting to get bored, but Zane was still engaged. Back downstairs, Shaunda reminded me about the musical instrument section. Stradavarius violins, trombones from the 1800’s, and instruments I had never seen before. I especially enjoyed seeing the original surviving precursor to the modern piano.

After all that, it was time for some lunch! On the way, however, we spotted a Leonardo Da Vinci museum that contained working machine models based upon Da Vinci’s drawings set up for the boys to handle. Zane has been quite interested in Da Vinci, so we went. Gray was interested to see how all the machines worked. I didn’t realize that Da Vinci had also been the first to discover layers in the earth and how they change over time.

In the afternoon, we took a bus up to the Michelangelo Piazza that overlooks Florence. You can really see how large Il Duomo is. You also have a great view of the city and the hills surrounding it. Beautiful view! From there, we hoped to go to the Pitti Palace, but we couldn’t find the best route. In addition, it had been too long since we had had a bathroom break, so we struggled to find our way. The map wasn’t much to go on ;-) The end result was that some tired kids got some gelato they didn’t deserve, cause you gotta buy something from the merchant with the bathroom!

We eventually passed by the Pitti Palace, but too late in the day for a tour. We headed back over the Ponte Vecchio, enjoying some shopping on the way despite our sore legs.

Following taking pictures of the nearby statuary (including the Rape of the Sabine Women by Giambologna, and Perseus by Cellini, as well as a copy of David, which stands where the original stood before it was moved to Acadamia), we enjoyed a good, but pricey dinner in the Piazza della Signoria. The Palazzo Vecchio’s huge bell tower nearby, beautiful weather, and a nice bottle of wine. (of course, the boys got gelato again too!)

At the end of the day, we are fulfilled, tired, and butts and legs ache...

Second day of Venice:

Sun was shining this morning! We didn’t rush too much. Gray had been sick the night before – we had really worn him out! Time to pack up to leave this hotel, but we still had most of the day ahead!!

One of the things Gray had wanted to do was to rent a bicycle cart – like two tandem bikes joined together with a little roof. Our destination – the other side of the island where we could see the sea. The Adriatic Sea! I’m not sure I could have found this on a map previously! Gray kept his mother awake while he piloted this craft. Eventually, we found the beach. Gray and Zane collected some shells. During our explorations, we saw more sights of Lido, the island on which we were staying. We found a neat open-air market with the backdrop of the bay and Venice (with the Alps back behind that!). After returning the cart, we attempted to find our way back to Murano. Venice is famous for having blown glass, but all of the actual furnace (furnaces?) were moved to the nearby island of Murano due to fire risk, odor, etc. After a few setbacks, we took our lunch in Lido, overlooking the waters between Lido and Venice.

Take two on heading to Murano – but the boat we had boarded kept going a different direction! We ended up going through more of a residential side of Venice to the train station, where we stored our bags while seeking more Venician adventure. From there, it was back to the Rialto bridge area (more gelato and more shopping). OK, now we needed to return to the train station. Gray wanted to take a water taxi (a smaller wooden motorized boat). The driver wanted 40 Euros! So we went to the water bus station. But they said that our passes had expired!! We went to another taxi, but they wanted 50 and wouldn’t budge. Then back to the water bus ticket station – a different one – who stated that our tickets were fine! But now we were seriously running out of time! Where was that big boat!! If we missed our high-speed train, it would cost even more than a water taxi! Plus it would take two hours longer on the slower train! What to do? (Remember – this has all been quite expensive and I don’t like to spend too freely!) Water taxi it was. But would we make our train on time? I kept urging Gray to tell the driver “Rapido!” Out of the taxi, Gray and I ran to get our luggage. Track 13? No, track 5. Which car? What is a carrozza anyway? Anyway, we did make it. We have been enjoying the Italian countryside roll by on our way to Rome!!