Five on Friday

It's finally Friday - yahoo! This week hasn't necessarily seemed long but I am oh so glad to see Friday arrive and have the weekend on the horizon!

One. Sleeping In - Seriously, as cheesy as this may sound...I am so excited that I have nothing on the agenda for tomorrow! I had plans of some sort every single Saturday in the month of November... and while they were all wonderful and delightful, after two weeks of being out of town and now trying to get back to the normal US time as opposed to Italy - I am just dreaming about staying in bed a little later and well...dreaming! *sigh* It's the little things y'all!

Two. The Aldi Cheese Advent Calendar - My Mom recently managed to snag me one of Aldi's fabulous cheese advent calendars (before this year they were not available in the US) and tomorrow I get to begin opening boxes and sampling cheeses! I am probably a little bit too excited about opening each little cheese filled door...but what can I say? I love cheese! 

Maybe next year I'll splurge on the Wine Advent Calendar? It's $69.99 versus the $12.99 for the cheese calendar... and it was also sold out!

Three. Living Well - The fireplace has been on the fritz for the past few weeks but it was finally fixed last night and it's amazing how much it has been missed. Most especially by Watson - one of his favorite things to do during cold months is back right up to the fire and toast himself. Well, as you can see...he wasted no time cozying up in his bed near the fireside. He's obviously living his best life.

Four. Movies Galore - I am trying to play movie catch up... I'm planning to go see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald on Sunday afternoon and I'm also hoping to see The Grinch at some point on Saturday. However, I'd still also like to see The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Robin Hood and Instant Family! Too many movies and not enough time!

Well - I guess I lied a little bit because this is only Four on Friday. Maybe it's the jet lag or whatever...I don't really know, but what I do know is I can only think of four things! I'll be back tomorrow with my November entertainment recap and even more posts about all things Italy next week! Enjoy your weekend!

Boats & Trains - Travel Across Italy

Monday arrived in Venice with ample sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures - which I heartily welcomed! I brought two jackets to Italy and neither one was necessarily built for freezing temperatures. We had to check out of the AirBnB by 11:00 and needed to catch the Vaporetto to the train station, get a quick lunch and be on our train by about 12:15... it was scheduled to leave at 12:30. 

We had our croissants and espresso again and made sure that everything was packed up and ready to roll before heading out the door around 9:00 to explore the waterfront of the Grand Canal and pick up a few souvenirs. The gorgeous sunshine illuminated the canals and alley ways, there were people out and about everywhere and the lines for taking a gondola ride were backed up!

We walked in the opposite direction we'd explored on Sunday and we're treated to multiple waterfront views and delightful undiscovered alley ways filled with unique shops and architecture. Venice certainly has stunning architecture going for it - so it's unfortunate to think that the city is sinking! Throughout our exploration of Venice, we saw what appeared to be tables stacked on one another and placed in the middle of the alley ways...

Our tour guide from the previous day had explained what those odd table like structures were: they were tables of a sort, that were placed end to end to allow people to walk when the city floods...as it is apt to do every few weeks. The sinking of the city of Venice has led to the seasonal phenomenon called Acqua Alta, which means high water in Italian and usually occurs between the Autumn and Spring seasons. Just weeks before we arrived, the whole of Saint Mark's Square was flooded. Eek!

We returned to our AirBnb and picked up our luggage, easily hopped on board the Vaporetto and made our way toward the train station to catch our train to Rome. We made it in plenty of time to grab a slice of pizza (me - I ate all the pizza y'all) and a sandwich before hopping on our high speed train and making our way out of Venice. Suddenly the water disappeared, the land was restored all around us and cars were everywhere!

Riding the high speed train...

Hey you - look here!

 The high speed train ride took just over three hours to take us from Venice through the Italian countryside, with a stop in Florence before we pulled into a rainy Rome. The train was comfortable and in my humble opinion - the perfect way to travel! While the sun was shining when we left Venice, it was certainly not doing that when we arrived in Rome, so we got an Uber to our AirBnb and when we made our way up to the fourth floor walk up (stairs again y'all - all the stairs), we were greeted with an incredible view from the front balcony...

I will admit - I became a bit emotional when I first glimpsed the Colosseum. I've always been fascinated by ancient history and seeing a city like Rome has always been at the top of my bucket list. There was something absolutely breathtaking about peering out the window of our apartment and seeing a structure that has stood in place for hundreds of years. It was amazing y'all. Just amazing. 

The AirBnB host had made recommendations for dinner and one just happened to be a block away from our apartment, so we stepped out into the drizzly night and walked up the sidewalk to Clementine's - which was this delightful little restaurant with just four small tables and a brick work ceiling. It was so precious y'all...just so precious...if you can call a restaurant that, ha-ha!

Clementine's

 The waiter was a perfect character, chatting about everything on the menu and making recommendations for each person! We spied fried ricotta and fried parmigiana regiano on the menu and we'd initially considered just starting with the parmigiana but he assured we needed to sample both, eating the ricotta first and then the parmigiana...which was a sharper tasting cheese and following the ricotta would be "an explosion of flavor on the palate"...

He wasn't wrong ya'll - but then again, I find it hard to believe one can ever go wrong with fried cheese, you know?

Ricotta on the left - Parmigiana Reggiano on the right.

Cherry Tart - Tiramisu - Strawberry Cake - Mango Cheesecake

We had dessert after our meal and then made our way back to the apartment to get some shut eye ahead of our first full day in Rome. There is a lot to see and we technically only had two days to see it all.

This picture will be the least picture heavy - because coming up in my next post: the Colosseum and some other notable Roman locations. So yea...there will be all the pictures! 

Watson Wednesday

The sweetest little fellow, happy to be relaxing by the Christmas tree.

I'm on A Boat... on the Canals... of Venice!

How in the world does time work - because when I think about our time in Venice; which was only a week and two days ago, it somehow seems like another lifetime ago. Isn't that strange? We slept in a bit on Sunday morning and much to our delight, our AirBnB has it arranged so around 8:30 each morning a local bakery drops off fresh baked croissants at the door - and so we helped ourselves to those lovely treats while drinking copious amounts of espresso!

We didn't have plans set in stone until the afternoon - our tour of Saint Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace was not until 2:00 in the afternoon and so after we finished up our espresso and croissants, we bundled up and headed out into the blustery day to explore the city of Venice. We were told by multiple people that the weather had turned pretty recently and so it made things quite blustery out on the water... Our first stop was in Saint Mark's Square and I'll go ahead and preface you - there will be so many pictures in this post - oh so many pictures. 

Saint Mark's Square!

Smiling in the Piazza San Marco

Sister shot in Saint Mark's Square!

Saint Mark's Basilica & the San Marco Campanile!

Saint Mark's Square is situated on the Grand Canal and is something of a focal point for visitors to Venice. The Square contains the San Marco Campinale, which is a bell tower that was originally build in the 9th century as a watch tower... it also contains Saint Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace; also known as the Ducal Palace of Venice. The wind off the water made it incredibly chilly and it only became more so as we made our way through the square and toward the Grand Canal.

Saint Mark's Square!

Saint Mark's Basilica!

The Venetian Astronomical Clock...

Decor on Saint Mark's Basilica!

The Grand Canal is the major water traffic corridor in the city of Venice and most of the smaller canals wind their way off the Grand Canal. The scene at the Grand Canal has the picturesque gondolas and the striped poles that are so easily associated with your typical picture of Venice... as well as gorgeous buildings that date back to the 13th century. You can glimpse other islands that make up the city of Venice across the waterways and boats are constantly zipping along here and there, going about the business of the day. 

On the Grand Canal of Venice!

Gondolas on the Grand Canal!

Water as far as the eye can see...

Looking toward Saint Mark's Square.

Cheese! You're in Venice!

People were milling around everywhere and at one point, a girl decided to take a picture near the same spot I am standing in for the picture above... but for some reason she decided it would be a good idea to step down onto the steps descending into the canal; most of which were covered in slick green moss. You can guess what happened next, right? She slipped right down those steps and while she thankfully didn't fall fully into the canal, her entire right leg was soaked up to her hip. And I'm pretty sure it was about 35 out... no thank you! 

One of the 400+ bridges that cross the canals of Venice...

The Doge's Palace!

Gondola ride anyone?

We made our way through the streets... I guess they aren't streets, ha-ha...but you get the point and snapped shots of two of the most famous bridges in all of Venice: the Bridge of Sighs and the Rialto Bridge. The Bridge of Sighs connects the Doge's Palace to the prison and is so named because prisoners would cross one side of the bridge to be led into prison and only cross again to be led to their execution in Saint Mark's Square - so the sighs are not of the pleasant variety.

Rialto Bridge spans the Grand Canal and the sides of the bridge are lined with shops - which alas, I didn't walk into a single one of! *sigh* We perused the canals and alley ways and decided that if we planned to get lunch and take a gondola ride before making our way back to Saint Mark's Square for our tour, we'd better get right on it! 

The Bridge of Sighs in the background.

Eating outside is a very common thing in Italy - I'd learn that pretty quickly - and it doesn't matter that it's nippy outside, they just string up heaters and go on about their business. We sat outside for our lunch and while I wasn't ever uncomfortably cold, it was a bit chilly at times! Thank goodness for tasty and toasty pizza to warm up your insides, ha-ha!

All about those canals...

A gondola in action!

It's like something out of a movie...

I wish I could better put into words what Venice was like - I feel like the pictures don't do it justice and it's just completely like something out of another world. You always hear about Venice and not having streets or cars or anything like that...but hearing about it ans seeing it are entirely different. 

The Rialto Bridge!

Boats on the Grand Canal!

We had lunch at a cafe alongside the canals - I had pizza - I ate a lot of pizza while we were in Italy, I know that's probably a given but I ended up eating a lot more pizza than I ate pasta. Surprising but true! We made our way over Rialto Bridge and climbed aboard a gondola for a thirty minute cruise along the canals... and y'all, let me tell you that "a good balance is key". The gondolier told each one of us exactly where we needed to sit within the boat and I was assigned to the front right side of the boat, seated with my knees facing the back of the boat... and when I tried to turn forward, the gondolier was quick to tell me "no - right balance is good balance" and so I turned right back into my starting position! 

On the canals of Venice!

The architecture is fascinating...

There is just something a little unreal about making your way along the canals of Venice and seeing homes where the front door leads right down into the water and a boat is tied along the steps. I can't imagine what life must be like when you need to purchase groceries (which is altogether a different activity as well...) and so you climb into your boat and make your way along the canals to do your shopping. I gather life in Venice must move at a very different pace...and I still haven't decided if I'd find that to be a good thing or not...

Do you spy the gigantic seagull floating in the canal?

Gondolas as far as the eye can see...

Once our canal boat ride was over, we made our way back to our AirBnB to change shoes, use the bathroom and such - did I mention that it was a fifth floor walk up? Hello stairs! We met up with our tour guide Marco in Saint Mark's Square and I knew we were in for a treat almost immediately because Marco excelled in sarcasm and I am all about that! He told us that as we were on our tour, we just had to be like the Italians and shove people gently out of the way... like a bulldozer, ha!

Marco escorted us across Saint Mark's Square and into Saint Mark's Basilica where he told us that we technically weren't supposed to take pictures but if we'd just pay attention to the guards, we'd be able to snap pictures when he wasn't looking! Saint Mark's Basilica was built in the 9th century as the personal chapel for the Doge of Venice (the president or ruler) and would go on to change hands as the city of Venice changed hands between the Italians, the Byzantines and more... the church is built in the style of Greek Orthodox and the floor plan follows the Greek cross pattern. The interior of the church is filled with mosaics and gold leaf and has five domes... it is also directly connected to the Doge's Palace.

Sneaky Saint Mark's Pictures...

Mosaic on the floor...

Look at all the gold leaf!

The Horses of Saint Mark Lysippos

So much gold leaf everywhere...

This is Marco - he was hilarious!

The tour extended out on to the balcony of the Basilica and I snapped a few pictures there - including a mosaic of Saint Nicholas! Y'all know that he's one of the best saints, right? The horses on the balcony of the basilica are reproductions while the originals are housed inside the church itself... and they have been all over the place! They were placed on the balcony of the church when the city of Venice sacked Constantinople in 1204 and then they were taken by Napoleon in 1797 before finally being returned in 1815. They've had just a few adventures...

Executions were done between those two pillars on the Square - exciting, right?

One of the five domes of the Basilica as viewed from the balcony.

The Doge's Palace as viewed from Saint Mark's Basilica.

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas...

Replicas of the horses of Saint Mark.

Once we finished our tour of Saint Mark's Basilica, we crossed through Saint Mark's Square and made our way into the Doge's Palace. The Doge's Palace was the home of the ruler of Venice and was filled with frescoes, grand entrances and exits and also contained the judicial center of Venice. Venice is made up of six different regions and so when making judicial decisions, the Doge was joined by an elected official from each of the six different regions. The Doge's Palace is also connected to the prisons of Venice - accessible by the Bridge of Sighs. 

An original canal boat in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace.

Posing for a picture or huddling for warmth?

The ceilings and ante-chambers of the Doge's Palace were extravagant...to say the least. The fine works of art, frescoes and attention to detail were meant to convey the wealth and power that the Doge held and all of the glorious artwork is still perfectly maintained today.

The judicial seat of the Doge and the six representatives of Venice.

Justice...posed atop the entrance to a secret staircase.

The large ballroom in the Doge's Palace.

The tour was fantastic and was three hours or so that allowed us to see some of the most prominent portions of the city of Venice - and Marco was hilarious and interesting to listen to. He had jokes about everything and knew so much about each of the places we toured...which, of course. That's why he's the tour guide, ha-ha! He proclaimed me his "favorite" after I correctly answered a question about the name of the Italian composer of Four Seasons - that would be Vivaldi.

I'm realizing now that if you've made it this far in the post... well done to you because I took so many pictures...and there are still more to come! There was just so much to take in and I want to be able to look back here one day and relive it all, so hopefully you're enjoying the pictures too!

The view crossing the Bridge of Sighs!

The Grand Staircase of the Doge's Palace.

The statues on either side of the Grand Staircase are of Mars and Neptune - again, statues meant to convey to anyone visiting that they were in a place where great power was wielded on a daily basis. All visitors would have arrived via this staircase, so the power play was always on show.

The gondolas as night falls...

The domes of Saint Mark's Basilica. 

We had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe - I know, not exactly original but we figured we'd be eating plenty of pasta and pizza throughout the week and the Hard Rock happened to be right next to our AirBnB, which was specially nice as the sun set and the temperature dropped! Brrrr! I will say - it was easily the smallest Hard Rock Cafe that I've ever eaten in!

 After having dinner, we made our way to Florian's - the oldest tea room in the world, located right on Saint Mark's Square - and had ourselves some delicious dessert! Luckily we arrived in the nick of time; November is firmly considered the "off season" in Italy and the tea room was all set to close promptly at 8:00...and we arrived at 7:40! Just enough time to quickly pick our desserts and scarf them down! You know I took pictures of all the wonderful desserts that we had together!

A full day in Venice to be sure - and happily, no one caused a power outage on Sunday night - what a gift! After Lindsey and I danced around Saint Mark's Square in giggles, we went back to our AirBnB to put together our bags, get some sleep and prepare to make our way to Rome on Monday! 

Let me leave you with just a few more pictures from our day around Venice and on the canals - just in case you haven't seen enough!

A very blustery day - to be sure!

Goofing off in one of the many piazza's...

Family photo for the win!

Ciao for now ya'll - it's on to Rome for the next post!