I think it’s time for me to finally start posting pictures from our trips. I’m starting with Italy, Christmas 2010, simply because that’s the camera I have sitting next to me at the moment. After looking through the pictures, I think I will be dividing up the trip into many posts. Venice will be one post, and then Rome will be divided up by location because we have so many pictures from Rome. Don’t get me wrong, we loved Venice too, but we didn’t really get into picture taking mode until we hit Rome. Maybe it was the weather in Venice…
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| Canals on Christmas Day evening in Venice |
Weather in Venice over Christmas? I felt like I hadn’t left Germany. Except the snow had turned to rain. It was in the upper thirties and low forties, but with the rain (a slow soaking rain) it felt much colder. Even under gray skies though, Venice is beautiful. After living in Germany, I was surprised to see trash on the sidewalks, but that’s part of Venice’s charm. Trash pickup is every day, so you see little grocery bags filled with trash hanging from front gates everywhere, including Christmas Eve (not Christmas Day though). We failed to take pictures of the trash, so I’ll let you use your imagination.
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| The chapel at our vaparetto stop. You can see the flash reflecting off raindrops. |
Christmas Eve was a bit of an experience for everyone. Jason and I arrived by train at 6:30 am. And we didn’t communicate well. I’d been the only one looking at maps of Venice because Jason had been so busy at work, and I’d failed to mention to him that everyone gets lost in Venice. Needless to say, we ended up lost on our way to the apartment my parents had rented. There we were, trudging through Venice’s sidewalks, in the predawn dark, in the rain, up and over canal bridges. For two hours. We ended up going back to the train station and purchasing tickets to ride the vaparetto (water “bus” system). By this time the sun had risen, though it was still raining. Mercifully, the man who was renting the apartment to us was still waiting. He took us to the apartment (a cute, sprawling three bedroom that was more than twice the size of our apartment in Jena). His father was with him and spoke very little English. The two argued back and forth in the typical parent/child dynamic (Yes, Dad, I did tell them that the tides would be high today. Yes, Dad, I showed them where the information on trash collection is.) This conversation went on for a good 15 minutes while Jason and I were longing to take a nap. (The night train had been way less comfortable than we’d anticipated.) My parents, younger brother, and his fiancée would be arriving in a few hours and we wanted to get a nap in first.
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| We took the vaparetto to the train station our last day. Much better than walking. |
But a nap was not in our near future. Instead, we had to go to the store. The one store that was open on Christmas Eve. And we had to get there fast because the tide was coming in. And when the tide comes in, the tide really comes in. We had been told that the store was just around the corner, but Jason and I were thinking in Jena standards (ie, maybe a 5 minute walk) instead of Venice standards (20 minute walk). Oops. By the time we got there, the tide was definitely up. We saw people walking down the sidewalk with grocery bags tied over their shoes. And then we saw why. The area just in front of the store was much lower than the rest of the area around it. We had to wade through six inches of standing water to get to the entrance of the store. By the time we came out (loaded down with beverages and snacks and fruit for six people), the water had risen another four inches. What can you do but smile and plunge on in?
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| We remembered to take pictures at our Christmas dinner after we'd finished. Oops. |
We got a phone call from Mickey and learned we’d be getting our nap. Their connecting plane in Paris had been cancelled and they’d be getting into Venice six hours later than planned. Jason and I had dinner at a lovely restaurant we’d seen on our walk to the store, and waited on the phone call saying that my family had landed in Venice. It came a bit later than planned. Yes, they’d landed, but only one of four bags had actually made it to Venice with them. And, of course, by the time they got through the line to inform the airline of their lost luggage, it was 1 am. Luckily, they managed to flag down the one taxis still at the airport to take them to the island (airport is on the mainland). Amazingly, the vaparettos were still running, though on an abbreviated route that didn’t include our stop. By now it was 2:30 am. I dragged Jason out of bed, hoping we could successfully meet up with them. Ben insisted he could find our stop, and we’d meet them there.
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| What can I say? I love this picture! |
As we were walking to the vaparetto stop, I heard a suitcase rolling down the sidewalk we were about to intersect with. Thought through head: who on earth would be coming down the sidewalk with a suitcase at the time of night on Christmas Day. Well, duh! We’d finally met up with my family! We’d managed to meet up well before the vaparetto stop. Yippee!
The next two days in Venice were lovely, full of food and family. We spent Christmas Day getting lost on the way to the restaurant I'd reserved at table at for lunch. I ended up having to call and reschedule and we were still an hour late for our reservation! They had plenty of seating, so it was not an issue. But we learned our lesson and stuck with the vaparetto after that.
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| Being with family is totally worth the hassle of crazy traveling days. And lost luggage. |
