Venice, days 2 and 3

First thing on Monday morning, we had a guided tour with Fiona. . . I had sent several emails to guides and was pleased that this was the lady who had the morning free. She was excellent and wonderful at engaging the girls. Greg and I, who have both been to Venice many times, learned some things, including the meaning of the various Carnevale masks and that Marco Polo's wife was Chinese. It couldn't have been easy for Signora Polo in the Venice of the 1300's.
We went back to the apartment for lunch and a siesta, with which we hoped would shake off the remaining jet lag.
Since we were already in clothes appropriate for churches, after siesta, we took the vaporetto to St. Toma to visit the Frari,  magnificent gothic church and site of two of our favorite paintings. I think I wrote about it the last time we were here, during my sabbatical, but no trip to Venice is complete to us without going there.

http://www.basilicadeifrari.it/

We sauntered through a shopping district en route to dinner and the girls were able pick up some souvenirs for their friends. Julia developed a passion for masks which was satisfied on our last day. She also was intent on terrorizing the local pigeon population.

We headed for dinner at a restaurant recommended by our land lady's assistant and had a wonderful experience. They brought hot pizza bread and an eggplant appetizer that was fabulous.

Greg and I had pasta with shellfish, ignoring my own warning not to eat seafood in Venice on Monday, when the seafood market is closed (it came back to haunt me!), Alison and girls had pizza, John had spaghetti with meatballs. We took the vaporetto back to Accademia (our closest stop), went to apartment to get the carello (grocery tote with wheels) and walked the fifteen minutes each way to the Billa market to get ingredients for the next night's dinner.
The next day, when I was back among the living, we decided to let the Tisarannis go to Murano on their own (no crowded, hot boat rides for me!) and Greg and I went to the Biennale, a contemporary art exhibit with artists from all over the world. Some of it seemed self-conscious and some of it was interesting.
http://www.labiennale.org/it/arte/

We met the rest of the family at the vaporetto near St. Marks and went to our favorite Venetian restaurant, Trattoria alla Rivetta. We have never had a bad experience or a bad meal there. We started with fried calamari, had some spinach, stuffed peppers, tagliatelle with crab, and more calamari. . .my Italian was decent enough this time to indicate that we wanted to share the plates. I was also able to tell them that we've been coming to the restaurant for at least 20 years and didn't know their names: Sergio was our waiter and Lino has been the proprietor. He's also a dead ringer for Eugene Ormandy (I've never been brave enough to ask to take their pictures---they see SO many tourists and it seemed an imposition).

After lunch, the Tisarannis went to the Doges Palace (We were not climbing those steps after such a full lunch!) Greg and I went back for a siesta (sense a theme?) and the others took one too when they returned.

Our son-in-law prepared spaghetti and sausage for us and our friend Roberta. We met Roberta several years ago when we brought a group from University of South Carolina to Italy. She subsequently invited us to share the feast of the Redeemer with her (when we returned for a conference later that summer) and we've maintained contact ever since. She's a very interesting lady and puts on concerts in Venice. She also teaches English at the conservatory.

After dinner, John and Alison took the girls for gelato and we walked Roberta part way back to her apartment.

View from the Zattere at night 

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Arrival in Venice

As always with travel, you can count on the unexpected. We had a very smooth flight from Dulles to Amsterdam, but about 30 minutes from the destination, Alison and I were looking at our boarding passes and realized their flight was two hours later than ours! As soon as we landed, we found the KLM desk to ask about Greg and I rebooking to theirs, but it wasn't possible because our luggage was already on route to our flight. So, we said, see ya in a few hours and headed to our gate. While waiting in passport control and the security line (this being our entry into the EU), I phoned our Venice landlady and let her know that we wouldn't be at the apartment until 3 (2 hours later than scheduled). Then, I called the water taxi number and got grilled on why we were going to be late. . .the passive voice 'there was a delay' seemed to work. When we got to Venice, we went to the actual booking window and confirmed that and everything seemed to be ok. The question remains: why wouldn't the travel agent mention that she booked us on separate flights for the last leg? I guess we should have checked them all and it was a lesson in not making assumptions.

The taxi ride from the airport was incredible and we forgot the earlier travails quickly.

John, Jordan, Ashley

Alison

Our apartment is beautiful. We had a light dinner at a restaurant near the apartment, did some grocery shopping, then crashed. Monday: a private guided tour!

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Prologue

This trip was something Greg and I had been thinking about ever since Alison and John were married, and particularly after they had children. John is Italian-American, with fond memories of his grandparents and of course, our grandchildren are half Italian-American. We got serious about it about two years ago, when some reservations about how young Julia was. We made some concrete plans to go during Spring 2012, but needed to scrap those, for various reasons. Initially, we planned for a week but airfares are SO expensive that it seemed to make sense to go for two weeks. Now that the girls were 14, 12 and almost 7, it seemed like the perfect time.
We had first experienced staying in apartments during Sabbatical 2010 and loved it! It really helps you feel like you actually live in a place for the length of time you are there. I owe thanks to my Italian study partner (CH--you know who you are!) for suggesting it. We've searched through both home away.com and vrbo.com. Many times, apartments are listed on both services. Vacation Rental by Owner is reputed to be cheaper but I have no evidence to back that up.
We first had to start with the airfares and after the sticker shock on that abated, decided on the length of time we wanted to start in Venice and where to stay. Then, we looked for a Tuscan house and had two days in between Venice and Cortona. We debated between going to Verona or to Bologna. We had taken Alison to the opera in Verona when she was 15 and liked the idea of doing that, so Verona was the choice. With the selection of an airport hotel in Florence and the rental of our 9 passenger van!, we were ready to go!