Venezia

Just being on the train approaching Venice was exciting. The dramatic way that you come in on the water was a scene right of out of Summertime and you can't help but feel a bit like Katherine Hepburn about to begin an adventure of a lifetime. We met a nice couple on the train (Eric and Barb) who we shared a vaporetto (water bus) with to San Marco.

Carolyn met a guy on the train (Massimo) who invited us to join him and a few friends for dinner that night. Dinner with the locals? This is what we dreamed about. So we get to San Marco which is as grand and impressive as I had thought and as I am rolling my samsonite bag through the piazza I can't help but picture all of the movies I have seen that started right here. Our hotel is what seems like 50 twisty turny little streets from san marco (in actuality we came to discover it is more like a 3 minute walk once you know where you are going). We check in and no sooner do I get my shoes off is Carolyn saying, " Get dressed! We have to go meet my friend's friend Cat, who lives almost on the Rialto bridge. She can only see us tonight so we gotta go now. OK I am game. We find our way to the bridge (also a 5 minute walk once you know where you are going) and climb up to her flat that is literally 4 buildings from the rialto bridge with a balcony that overlooks the grand canal.

No sooner than she breaks out a bottle of Proseco and starts regailing us with tales of life in Venice and the politics and intrigue of being an author and trying to get a book published and launched do we get a call from Massimo and his friends. They are crossing the canal as we speak in a little motor boat to come up and meet us at Cat's. Cut to us all having a welcome to Venice toast and off Carolyn and I go to dinner with Massimo, Franco and Oscar. (Oscar is the one with the boat, an invaluable thing in Venice.)

The boys (well let's call them boys) take us to a restaurant where they know the owners and without seeing a menu the food begins to arrive (scampi, scallops, baked crab, on and on) course after course until we close the place. We head back to the boat and see Massimo following behind with a bottle of, yes you guessed it, Prosseco and 5 glasses. We then get a private tour of Venice by night with the appropriate Prosseco accompaniment. You can't make this stuff up if you tried! The boys then drop us off at the Rialto bridge where they found us, intact and deliriously happy to be in Venice. We make plans to meet them the next day so we can take them to lunch to thank them for their hospitality.

Same place...next day at noon. We meet our now buddies and get back on our boat and head off to Torchello, an island of of the north coast of Venice that is famous for their spider crab... and for good reason. More prosseco, more crab, some sightseeing through Murano and Borano islands by boat and we find outrselves in the middle of the Venetian lagoon, where the locals come on weekends to relax.

I notice a strange sight and at first think my eyes are playing tricks on me because it appears that a few people are literally walking on water next to their boat in the middle of the lagoon. Well it turns out that there is an area that is only 2 and a half feet deep and so we anchor the boat and the guys proceed to strip down to their bathing suits and get out of the boat. You have to see the pictures to believe it.

After laying out in the sun for a bit we find our way back to Venice proper where we move into a teeny tiny narrow canal and stop at what seems to be a window in the middle of the wall about 5 feet above the water. One of the guys climbs up into the window and Carolyn and I are looking at each other and thinking "What is going on now?" Well turns out this is the back window of a restaurant that is owned by a friend of Massimo's (of course, we should have guessed) and the proprietor (Emiglio) comes out with bottles of beer and a few plates of snacks for us to enjoy on the boat. Meanwhile overpriced gondolas full of Americans are floating by wondering what the heck our little floating picnic was all about. It was extremely satisfying I must say.

So we leave for another tour of Venice by dusk and end up at a Pizzeria nearthe Rialto fish market that plays classic jazz. Franco had heard that I like jazz and so we had pizza to the sounds of Billy Holiday and Frank Sinatra. I don't think we could top this day in a million years, so why even try.

The next day Carolyn and I split up for a few hours in the morning and arrange to meet back up in the hotel before dinner. I bump into Franco on the streets on my way to the Jewish Ghetto. What are the odds? Better yet when I come back to the hotel Carolyn tells me that she ran into Oscar on her journey about the city. Small town? Small world? You decide. This was our last night in Venice so we went to Harry's Bar to indulge one of my lifelong dreams...a bellini at Harry's Bar where Hemingway and Lauren Bacall and every other notable has been. Carolyn, while investigating the restroom situation inadvertantly walks in on a staff meeting upstairs and ends up meeting Nevvio, the manager, who comes down and meets me and gives me his card and makes us take a picture together. Can this get any better?

We have a swanky dinner and then meet Franco in San Marco for a quick drink and to say our goodbyes. We then stroll the piazza listening to the dueling orchestras until we get tired enough to call it a night and get ready to go off to Florence.