Before updating you with fantastic stories, I'd like to note that my husband has more than earned his "lousy t-shirt" (see below) because he's most fantastico for taking off of work to take care of our children all week so that I can be here with your children AND for being our amazing Blogger-by-proxy, complete with historical links. I may buy him a second shirt tomorrow.
So...let's begin with our journey here. It was long. We had no problems navigating the airport. The kids were great. They watched movies, ate their funny little meals and slept some. It was long. We arrived safely. It was long. Our clothing stunk. It was long. THE END.
Now to the goods stuff. We arrived in Venice on the lesser Lido (the blue collar one) in time for a wonderful meal of salad bar, pasta al dente with tomato sauce, breaded veal cutlets ("tastes like chicken"), french fries and pudding. Red eyed and weary, we were all asleep by 10pm.
Okay, really..now the good stuff. Our wonderful chartered bus driver, Nitalia (means, Christmas in Italian. Since he does not speak English, I've just fabricated the story that he must have been born on Christmas, somewhere in a small village in Naples some oh...maybe 60 years ago.) took us to the wharf about 30 minutes from our hotel. Thanks to Carmen, our wonderful, seasoned tour guide, we were first there waiting to meet our water taxi (more like a small ferry for maybe 100 people) to go across the lagoon to the island of Murano. We took the opportunity to take a group photo with the lagoon behind us (very foggy, drizzly, but not raining) and line the kids up who decorated their backpacks. And the winner issssss.....oops, too hard to choose just one so Addy and Hannah are both enjoying a free Gelato in each city on Ms. Satterwhite and I for having the most fantastic backpacks. The runner(s) up were applauded and will also get to eat a gelato in each city, at their own expense. :)
Here comes the taxi and the excitement! All Aboard! The lagoon is beautiful and eery all at the same time. It's about a 30 minute ride across to Murano and we pass only deserted little islands with ruins for buildings and some industrial areas. Then all at once we ascend on Murano and dock just outside one of many glass blowing factories. Inside, we sit stadium style with another EF group from Canada and watch "Jo-Jo" who is continually announced as "75 years old!" (Jo-Jo has every right to accidently drop globbenous hot glass on this man, I think. Good thing he is charming and seems proud that he's still cranking out beautiful glass each day as he's done for over 50 years.) I think I will let you kids explan what happens next, but just know it is miraculous to see something very beautiful be born from a lump of red hot glass, in only minutes. And just like Disneyworld, they dumped us out into a gift shop. Yay! The kids all seemed to make wise choices and most of them are shopping for all of you and not themselves. At least this is what they are telling me when I ask them "who is that for?" After about an hour on Murano, we board for the "fish" as Venice proper is called due to it's shape. We dock at St. Marco square and walk with Carmen to meet our arranged city guide, Matteo. Matteo works for the University (He didn't say which one and if he hadn't been so darn smart, I might've thought he was just making this up.) likely teaching history of some sort as he seemed very passionate about his Venice. The kids (and adults) were snapping photos, very engaged, followed my lead to fill their water jugs from the public fountains (very safe and delicious) which made them excited. After a walking tour of the area around San Marco (the Basilica deserves its' own blog...look up "St. Marks Basilica"), the huge piazza, the Doge's (rulers/kings) palace that is now a museum, we split up into smaller groups for a walk through the alleyways, past the most fantastic shops filled with clothing, shoes, murano glass, pastries, gelaterias, etc. and made our way to take away places for inexpensive lunch a la sandwiches or pizza. We made our way back to one big group and it was time for GONDOLA rides! This was as magical as you might imagine in scenery, but your children were just as fun to watch as the Venice that was rolling by. One boat full (6 per boat) was singing silly songs that were bouncing off of the alley walls, in my boat, Amanda was invited to stand and row with our gondolier (while I made a squinty face, peered through my fingers and managed to also take a video clip) and little Amelie Satterwhite got to do the same in their boat. After this unforgettable 30 minutes, we made our way as a group to the Venitian Lace school and watched a demonstration and did a little shopping. By the looks of things, all of you are making out pretty well back home. All of these boys are dutifully shopping for their "mammas" and I've told them what good boys they are each time. Amazingly, we still had a couple of hours left to break back up into our groups and do a little shopping. I cannot speak for all of the other groups, but I certainly enjoyed my time with my little group of girls. Having been here twice before, I let them lead and I followed them into any and all shops they wanted to go in and yet I still managed to spend the most money. The nicest surprise happened at the end of the day. We met back in San Marco square as the thick fog was rolling in and the sun was setting and ran right smack in to the Alvin High School group that is also here on the same tour. What a fantastic reunion, quick exchange and on our way.
If you've ever ridden away from a coast line and had sentimental thoughts, then you know how we felt watching Venice dissapear on the horizon. Everyone had that satisfied, if not "pinch me" look and certainly were very tired. We arrived back at the hotel around 7pm and just in time for salad, pasta bolognese, rosemary chicken, roasted potatoes and flan. With stuffed minds and stuffed bellies, we trickled off to bed. In the morning we would pack our bags, breakfast, say arrevaderci to a rainy Venice and make our way to Tuscany.
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