Volare!

First of all, my fancy watch says I have walked over 15,000 steps today.  That is a little more than my usual number.  Today is also Jeff’s birthday, and to celebrate, we went to the main part of Venice.  We actually went because that’s what was on the tour schedule for the day, but serendipity is pretty great, too.  

We took a water taxi to the most famous part of the series of islands that make up the city, and from there, we did a bit of a walking tour.  It was extremely humid in the morning, and we were all feeling it when we walked in then out of the Saint Mark’s Cathedral on our tour.  We had a local guide there, and she was very good.  She took us from the cathedral, across the square and through some very narrow streets. By the time we got to the place that was scheduled to show us a glass blowing demonstration, we were very damp and sweaty.  Riddle me this- if you have about 30 people and they are very hot and dehydrated, where do you take them?  I bet you didn’t say a glass blowing demonstration with a super-hot kiln that melts glass.  If you did say that, you’re not a very nice person.  

We watched the demonstration, which was very good, then endured about 75% of the sales pitch that followed before a small fraction of us splintered off to find a bathroom and some air conditioning.  After that, we had a little walking around time (not much) before our trip to the gondolas.  Cas and I must have had the same idea as Jeff and Reema, because without discussing it beforehand, we each booked a couples thing.  So, Jeff and Reema were on a gondola with their gondolier, an accordion player and a singer.  We were on a different gondola with a similar crew.  We had an absolute blast.  The accordion player on our gondola was probably somewhere in his 40s of 50s, but the singer was a bit older.  He had a full head of white hair and a big, walrus mustache.  He stood up to sing, and when he did, there were occasions when he held a note so long that I nearly forgot to breathe myself.  It was really dramatic.  There is a short video clip of him somewhere in the photo album, but you can hear him singing Volare here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1e7s6UHuX5Ogxa8CK9LrJsJfsT2EKlJqJ/view?usp=drivesdk

That was a tough act to follow.  From there, we went to a nice lunch of seafood risotto and gnocchi, followed by a bit of wandering that led us to Harry’s Bar.  Jeff is pretty taken with the idea of drinking classic and prohibition era cocktails, and the Negroni was the thing to get at Harry’s Bar.  Evidently, it was the thing that Earnest Hemingway would drink there.  Often.  I had a sidecar- I couldn’t hang with the Negroni.  It made Jeff very happy to have a fancy cocktail at the legendary spot, and when I raised my glass to wish him a happy birthday, the manager rushed off and returned with two pieces of cake.  I thought it was a nice touch, and since the drinks were about 20 bucks each, the free cake seemed correct.  

After Harry’s, it was a brisk walk back to the meeting spot, which was the clock tower in Saint Mark’s Square.  We made our way to a waiter taxi that dropped us very near our hotel, and we collapsed on the bed for a few moments.  I got a little too comfortable lying down, and it didn’t even feel like dinner time yet, so we had to make an active choice to get up and go get some food.  We decided the smart option was a meal in the courtyard of the historic hotel where we’re staying.  The chef special was a sea bass ravioli today, and at our level of exhaustion, it was very easy to say “I’ll have the special and some red wine, and charge it to Room 24.”  We needed that kind of simplicity- working at anything was simply out of the question. 

Tomorrow, we wake up, eat breakfast and head to our next destination: Florence.  

So, Happy Birthday, Jeff, and everyone else, have a great day! 

Here are our photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PR6jn1ZzhDS6cx8q8