#Palazzo Papadopoli Venice | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

jo-shanevenice18 · 5 years ago

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A Couple of Easy Ones Around the Town

4-5/05/2018: A couple of days to go and we've done what we wanted, Murano, Burano, Padova. We done plenty last time we were here but just looking around is what's best about this city. We have two days of exploring, go our separate ways and find stuff, whether planned or not.

Planning the day

Friday, we wandered out mid-morning after working out the garbage regime. Shane & Jo their direction, Cecilia hers and the boys theirs. We wanted another Venetian mask but could not remember where the shop that we got the last one was located. Knowing where the palazzo was where we stayed last time was a help and our memories and the shop's relation to it worked out fine.

We headed toward Saint Toma vaporetto stop and found the courtyard of the palazzo. From there it was easy, back along the alley where it met Calle Centani, turn left and there it was just a few metres away. An interesting aside was that we found a store with nice leather bags. We intended to return later on in the day to buy a handbag for Jo.

Calle Centani, the laneway to our last place

We looked at several masks and the one we liked most was nearly three hundred euro so we kept looking. Several masks resembled the mask that we bought from this shop the last time we were here but we weren't sure just what it looked like except that it was a female mask with musical notation as a theme. Jo got Mitch to send a photo of the mask to her phone and we ended up picking one similar, except male this time. This one cost one hundred and eighty Euros cash. We didn't want to carry it around all day so we gave the dude one hundred, said that we would collect it later and moved on.

Shop full of masks

The next task was to head to Stazione di Venezia Santa Lucia to buy the train tickets to Florence that we would need in a couple of days time, casually taking in the experience of walking the streets, tourists and all. We aimed to find somewhere for a tea and coffee and a snack on the way but came across a little hole in the wall bar on sun bathed Campo dei Tolentini, bounded by the sizable Chiesa di San Nicola da Tolentino with its Corinthian portico at the front and Rio del Tolentini directly opposite. Bacareto de Lele was packed with people queuing onto the fondamenta so something good was happening. People were hanging around eating and drinking where they stood so Shane joined the line to end up getting a couple of small wines and small bread rolls with porchetta.

Campo dei Tolentini

Standing room only

The wines came to one Euro sixty and the rolls the same. We had an excellent snack for just over three Euro and used the ornate balustrade of the steps leading to Ponte dei Tonentini as a table. Sometimes it’s the small things you experience that stick in your mind.

Enjoying the sunshine

Unlike our last train trip from Florence to Venice where we had to change trains at Bologna and carry all the bags from one platform, down and back upstairs to an adjacent platform, all the time looking for the first class carriages, this one was direct on the Frecciarossa so Aunty Cecilia wouldn't be a burden given her crook back, difficulty in keeping up and given the limited time available. Business class cost us about fifty seven euro (ninety dollars) each. We were to leave Venice at twelve thirty for a two hour and five minute journey.

Pietro Paleòcapa seated in Giardini Papadopoli, a leafy bit of green space near the station. We sat on a park bench enjoying the solitude and green space until gate crashed by twenty odd seven to ten year old school kids. We knew when we were defeated and gladly gave up our seat for them.

We then decided to catch the vaporetto to Saint Marco stop and walk back, so after purchasing seventy five minute tickets we waited patiently on Pontoon B to take the number two boat. A boat arrived as we hit the pontoon but there was so many people that we missed it. We did however manage to get on the next boat about fifteen minutes later but were packed in like sardines. Quite uncomfortable. No sight seeing on this trip but as people got off at Rialto more room became available. Upon disembarking at San Marco, although we were a part of the problem, we tried to get away from the tourists. There were thousands. We followed the throng through the streets back toward the Rialto Bridge window shopping as we went.

People queuing to get into Saint Mark's Basilica

A bit of room in the piazza today

When the bridge came into view to our left, we kept on straight ahead, moving away from it. Jo noticed an interesting bar on our right, Bacaro Jazz. We headed in for a drink. This place focused on jazz music and had it on the television non stop. It also had a ceiling totally covered in women's bras. It was quite interesting as was our conversation with other couples in there. One from Brittany who emphasised that Parisiennes were not indicative of people from other areas of France and some Canadians who we agreed to not call Americans if they didn't call us New Zealanders. It was all in jest and good fun.

Interesting ceiling

From there we headed back to the mask shop to complete our purchase as well as an Italian hand bag for Jo, returning our goodies to the apartment before hunting down Cecilia at her favourite haunt, sucking on a few vinos and her vaping stick. Another wine and we were off to freshen up for dinner.

Cecilia's locale

Since this would be our last restaurant dinner in Venice, we headed for a place where we had a good feed last time we were here, Ristorante Due Colonne near Campo San Agostin. The place was painted white this time and a lot brighter. After another enjoyable meal were retired back to the apartment for a failed attempt at Dictionary, another at Celebrity Heads but a successful game of Pass the Pigs before bed. Part of the entertainment was the drunken music session with Thomas blowing in a bottle, Beau popping his cheeks and Jo flicking her wine glass. Meanwhile Cecilia was filming and pissing herself laughing while Shane was standing behind Jo and unbeknownst to her, lowering his daks when in frame.

A good day exploring today. Tomorrow should be good as well.

Saturday was our last day in Venice which would be spent as was yesterday, taking it easy and looking around again. First things first though, the Jets played Victory in the A League Grand Final this morning our time. 7:50pm at home was ten to twelve here. We should have been able to lob on up to a bar and watch it. As luck would have it there was nowhere around that televised the match. What an insult, Italians not being interested in Australian football. The internet was too slow as well so we had to miss out.

Anyway, we just wandered around again, got lost and done our thing. Cecilia, Jo and Shane headed out leaving the boys to their own devices but within a hundred metres, Cecilia had dropped off leaving Jo and Shane remaining. We had only one thing to take care of today, namely another Italian leather bag from the Chinese shop nearby (unfortunately it’s a reality), but from a different tangent. We decided to look at the other side of the canal and end up, if we couldn't find any elsewhere to buy them, at the leather bag shop that was somewhere near the apartment.

With Cecilia doing her own thing we headed towards the market area at Rialto where the aftermath of the morning fish markets was underway.

Still plenty to choose from at lunch time

Seafood was still in some stalls but many were practically empty. Might reflect the price put on their product. Most stalls however were finished and packing up. The only winners at this stage were the huge gulls hanging around. As big as the Californian ones we experienced around Monterey a few years ago. They were particularly interesting as though very cautious if approached, were sifting through the wrapping and containers for a morsel of leftovers. They needn't have been bothered too much as they were big enough to take a finger off if they wanted. One product that was still plentiful was bags of mussels for a couple of Euro each. We didn't bother but should have taken a couple of bags home for an easy dinner.

They're all winners here

Fish Market price list

Following an interesting look at the Rialto seafood goodies, we jumped on the vaporetto and headed to the Salute stop, just across from San Marco. Disembarking in beautiful sunshine, we were greeted by another minor basilica, this time Santa Maria della Salute. We were now on Fondamenta Salute and Punta della Dogana, the triangular peninsula nestled between the Grand and Giudecca Canals. The location of the contemporary art gallery, also called Punta della Dogana and the Dogana da Mar, one of Venice's old customs buildings, right at the tip. There were plenty of young couples taking it easy around the area giving at a romantic feel.

Santa Maria della Salute

San Marco from Dogana da Mar

Fondamenta Zattere Ai Saloni was the path facing Giudecca, the island across the way. This is where we headed and for the next ten minutes there were bugger all tourists. We weren't sure of the area though and were keen to get back to the Grand Canal, get our bearings and make sure we were going the right way. More photos of an area that seemed that it may have been an upper class spot saw us back with the tourists.

Rio de la Fornace. Nice spot

At this time Jo needed to go to the loo so we walked back look for a restaurant as it was also time to eat. Jo's bladder had led us to Al Gondolieri, where we could sit down and have a break, a feed and a wee. Her bladder had also led us to a Michelin Star restaurant where surprisingly, although things were pretty ritzy, like two hundred plus euro bottle of wine, had cheaper options for the plebs, which we took.

The entrée, chosen by Jo was deep fried zucchini flowers with our mains being half serves of a beef dish for Jo and calves' liver for Shane. We also managed to find a twenty seven euro bottle of Pino Grigio (which surprisingly in Italian is Pinot Grigio), relaxed for an hour and can report that the meal was excellent. Something to chew on besides spaghetti or pizza. The half portions were very generous and tasted delicious. The whole meal was good. Half size aside, lunch still cost one hundred and ten euro.

Excellent feed at Al Gondolieri

We then kept pushing (literally) towards our apartment, navigating the laneways and bridges until we again arrived at our front door, an hour late for our wine tasting at Vineria all'Amarone. Our only two stops on our return leg was a visit to a Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at Chiesa di San Barnaba which held had a display of the contraptions that Leonardo invented, perfected, stole or otherwise and the Chinese Italian shop where we bought a leather bag for overnight trips. One hundred and ninety nine Euro reduced to one sixty six cash for the bag and a lot less for the Homer Simpson Vitruvian Man tee shirt.

Leonardo's contraptions

As we arrived back at the Flamini joint, Cecilia was getting up from her Nanna nap and the boys were just hanging around the apartment. Jo stayed outside, sniffing around a pending wedding, whilst everyone else mustered for the wine tasting. Flowery decorations adorned the stair rails of the adjacent church and a young bloke in wedding garb was hanging around the front. Something was going on.

Love is in the air

Once arrived at Vineria all'Amarone, we chose to sit outside, five tasting glasses each, half a glass in each. Jo took white wines and the rest of us took Italian regional reds. An interesting experience but after tasting all of the reds for a bit under forty Euro, the wines back at the apartment that cost five to six euro a bottle tasted pretty similar. Soon after, every one retired back to have a rest while Shane picked up some pasta and sauces for dinner and stopped at the bottl'o on the way back.

The owner was upset that we didn't take the better (more expensive) option. Amarone wine

When he arrived back at the apartment, he was surprised that the Nannas were out on the balcony sipping on meloncello rather than having their afternoon ritual, the Nanna nap. The church across the road was hosting a big fat Italian wedding and there was plenty of entertainment (and waiting) to be had. Plenty of music and singing was coming from inside where eventually after all the wedding guests had exited the church, out come the bride and groom. Quite an occasion.

Big fat Italian wedding

Family photo

It was at this point that we thought that we would settle in for the night. Our last night in Venice would be a quiet one. Then all hell broke loose around the corner in Campo Silvestro. We went about our business for a while but the commotion got the better of us. The hard surfaces of the square echoed loudly down the narrow laneways, so much so that we headed over for a look at what was going on. The answer was simple, the local bar, Altrove 360⁰ Bar had a band on. Sort of like an Italian Blues Brothers and they were pretty good. The crowd stood around in a large ring, surrounding the entertainment that was perched up against the wall of the bar. We joined a scant crowd, but it wasn't too long before the word (or racket) had got around and the crowd swelled as darkness approached. Back to the A League Final being played in our home town. Our team, Newcastle Jets were robbed by poor refereeing. An early and blatant offside goal by Melbourne Victory was given the all clear by a linesman who obviously wasn't up to the task. The joke and obvious embarrassment to the FFA was that the VAR wasn't working at the time. Television picked it up okay but not the experts. At the music, across from us was some Melbourne Victory supporters in their jerseys. A bit of friendly banter, acknowledgement from the Victory fans that we were robbed and it was back to the entertainment, complete with Cecilia, Jo and Beau getting on the dance moves.

Great entertainment at Altrove 360⁰ Bar

Strange thing. Out of nowhere came a bunch of youngens and started a tug-o-war. They disappeared as quickly as they came.

We spent the rest of the night in the square, enjoying the music and the antics of the muso's.

When in Venice, do what the Venetians do (or the tourists)

Plenty of entertainment, plenty of beer and no packing for our departure tomorrow as we depart for Florence on one of the fast trains.

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