Our Fourth Week in Italy

Friday, September 14

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Margaret here.  Mike and I both acquired some kind of upper respiratory thing.  So we stayed home, then went to Lina’s to upload photos.  Sara gave us some barley soup to take home and warm up for dinner.  It hit the spot, yum, yum.

 

Saturday, September 15

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Margaret here.  Still both sick, we stayed home again.  In the late afternoon we wandered around Mirano square.  It’s been completely taken over by a carnival.  So many rides and food trucks!  Families were out full force.  For dinner, I warmed up the pasta I had cooked, added some chicken we’d bought at the market, and made a salad.  Delicious.

 

Sunday, September 16

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Margaret here.  Sara messaged me that a cousin named Monica would be coming by about noon to walk us over to where we would meet the whole family.  It turns out that Monica is one of three sisters who are cousins of Sara and they live just two doors away from us.  She was delightful, and spoke some English, which helped because we had no idea what to expect.  Well, it helped a little.  She walked us over by her house and the other two sisters came out.  Their little dog wanted to go with us, but was promptly scooted back into the yard.  Most people here have gated yards.  Some are electronic, many are manual with a key or keypad.

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We all walked to the city center, through the carnival, and over to a tented area with long tables.  We were introduced to about 30 relatives (mostly women, where are the men?).  Lina’s three sisters were there too.  Seated at the long tables, there were many lively conversations going on.  This is a very active/interactive group!  Food was fried fish, all kinds of it.  Wine, of course.  And three kinds of dessert.

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Still not feeling too well, Mike and I left about 5:00 p.m and walked back home, escorted by Monica.  She is learning English and wanted to practice. 

 

Monday, September 17

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Margaret here.

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The 17th of the month is the day that we usually pay bills, which we do on line.  So about 1:00 we packed up and went to Lina’s to take advantage of her good internet.  Sara said she would like to come by and visit us that evening, so on our way home we stopped at the supermarket and picked up some munchies.  She was not able to make it, so we nibbled anyway.  That was our dinner.

 

Tuesday, September 18

Margaret here.  Off to Venice!  Mike really wanted to visit the Naval museum, so that was our first stop.  At least after we purchased museum tickets.  It’s kinda confusing about tickets to multiple museums.  You can buy a pass for just museums that’s good for 6 months.  Or you can buy a pass to selected museums and churches that’s good for a week.  We had intended to buy our tickets at the Corerr Museum, but the music at the Café Florian and our grumbling tummies told us the price was worth stopping.  I had a quiche and Mike had a club sandwich.  Both were served to us protected by mesh domes that discouraged sea gulls from diving in to grab our food.

After our visit to the Naval museum (Mike will tell you all about it), we made our way to the Rialto bridge.  I love this area in the evening.  So lively!  We stopped at a restaurant called Ristorante Florida for spritz.  We sat right by the canal and watched the action.  Then we caught an express water bus to the train and arrived home exhausted.

 

Wednesday, September 19

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Margaret here.  Back to Venice again!  Yeah!  This time we took the water bus to the Rialto and walked to the Fenice Theatre.  I’ve been there before, with my sister Carol but at that time there were no tours.  I think it was 2003, shortly after the theater had just re-opened (it burned down in 1996).  Mike and I took the audio self-guided tour and were not disappointed.  This is one beautiful theater.  And one with such a long and romantic history. 

We found a small bar tucked away in one of the narrow walkways, had a light lunch, and then we took off for Murano.  It was a very pleasant boat ride, and such a nice walk about this town.  There are multiple demonstrations of glass making, which is amazing to me.  Such beautiful craftsmanship and art.  We toured the glass museum, then headed back to Venice.

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Arrived at the Rialto, we found a nice restaurant, the Caffe Centrale, along the canal, ordered spritzes and split a salad of octopus.  Mike had paste de mare and I had ravioli stuffed with sea bass.  A glass of wine, some coffee, and we headed home.

 

Thursday, September 20

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Margaret here.  We slept until almost noon, tidied up a bit , blogged, and headed to Lina’s to use the internet.

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Mike here.  We had two great days in Venice this week.  The kind of long touring days where you come home, peel of your clothes and jump in the shower to wash off the sweat and relax.  Tuesday was my day to visit the Naval Museum.  Certainly interesting but more models and less history than I expected.  Plus it was really hot inside with no bathrooms or water.  A couple of interesting side rooms, 1 focused on far east ships with models for China, Korea and Japanese Junks .  A 2nd room was dedicated to Swedish/Italian naval relations.  Something happened in 1940 where Sweden ended up with plans for an Italian light crusier and then built a couple and then kept and built several Italian PT boats.  If I had enough internet bandwidth I would check it out. 

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The good thing about this week is that we (I) am doing less driving .  Our decision to spend more time in Venice feels like a good choice.  Our days in Venice should reflect (but don’t) our life in Chicago.  We get out late enough to avoid any commuter rush, take the train to the big city and do interesting things.  Hmmm, feels like we should do more in Chicago when we get back.

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