...tomorrow to the Swiss Alps, that is! We've finished our last full day in Venice and boy what a day it was. We started our day with the one and only tour for the entire day. The Doges' Palace or Pallazo Ducale is the the residence of the Ruling Families of Venice. Yes, lots of gold and grandiose architecture with a bit of intimidation, torture and brutality thrown in. We had the "Secret Itineraries" Tour scheduled which took us to the hidden rooms...offices, torture rooms, prisons and dungeons where the regular visitors don't get to see.
Luckily the Doges' Palace also has a gift shop. JACKPOT for the guys!
At the conclusion of the tour it was SHOPPING time! What a difference a day of shopping makes. This is our community room before shopping:
This is our community room AFTER shopping:
It was an exhausting day, but it was a FUN exhaustion. We're ready to move on to greener pastures...high in the Swiss Alps. But we'll never forget our time in Venice. We have had great fun, lots of great stories, lots of laughs and it's just like one big family now. What exactly does "one big family" mean??? This morning I overheard one of the boys saying "Mrs. Mynatt, your body spray smells really good", to which another boy replied "Dude, that's WEIRD!" Those are the kind of stories and laughter we've had today. I also overheard one of the guys say "I don't know how or when, but I'm coming back to Europe". I think that about sums it up. We've learned, we've had fun, we've grown closer and we've learned how to give and take and compromise...because with 16 people you either give and take or CRACK UP!
Toward the end of the day we traveled to our absolute favorite place in all of Venice...not the grand palaces or 12th century basilicas but to little St. Elena down at the very tip of Venice Island. This is where the real Venetians still live and play and commune. We always take the groups here to see the DRASTIC contrast between Tourist Venice and Community Venice. Let's see if you agree...
We always get lots of stares from the people because tourists just don't come here, yet it's probably the most beautiful part of Venice. There's a little pizzeria here where we always take the students, unfortunately there was a sign on the door "Chiuso per lutto riapriamo domenica 10". With my non-existent Italian I couldn't read it although I was sure it meant closed. Thanks to good old Mr. Margene (who has done this trip before) he translated and texted us. They were closed for mourning. However, we did the next best thing...walked into the little deli and played charades and communicated the best we could with the lady behind the counter and ended up with a PICNIC! Picnic in the park for a fraction of the cost and it was "FANTASTICO"! That's a new word I learned this time around. The lady laughed with us and waved "Chow".
We had olive bread, white bread, pesto, olives, ham carved from the slab, cheese sliced from the block and gelato. Mmmm Mmmm good! Why people don't visit here I'll never know.
As the evening sunlight faded we packed up and headed back. Of course halfway back 7 of students were hungry again so here we go...
A couple of the guys were very very brave and ordered the Black Ink Cuttle Fish Pasta (too brave for me)
*****Picture of the Day!*****
I think what Logan is trying to communicate is that Black Ink Cuttle Fish Pasta is an ACQUIRED taste :-)
The rest of the way back to our hotel just wrapped it up because of course they (not me) had to have one last Italia jacket and one last gelato. Yes, I can assure you they're going to be back someday.
We've got 2 private water taxis picking us up early in the morning to whisk us to the train station. The only thing standing in our way are 5 flights of stairs and luggage. Yikes. Tomorrow is Loooooong travel day with several connections along the way. Please pray for travel safety and rest on the train and good weather in our little Alpine Village of Murren. We've prayed for good weather, and I hope you have too. It looks like rain in the forecast, and we'll have a great time in the rain if we must...but it sure would be nice to have a little sunshine, too. Hope you enjoy the pictures from today. It's been an absolute blast.
Good night from Venice.
Luckily the Doges' Palace also has a gift shop. JACKPOT for the guys!
At the conclusion of the tour it was SHOPPING time! What a difference a day of shopping makes. This is our community room before shopping:
This is our community room AFTER shopping:
Toward the end of the day we traveled to our absolute favorite place in all of Venice...not the grand palaces or 12th century basilicas but to little St. Elena down at the very tip of Venice Island. This is where the real Venetians still live and play and commune. We always take the groups here to see the DRASTIC contrast between Tourist Venice and Community Venice. Let's see if you agree...
We always get lots of stares from the people because tourists just don't come here, yet it's probably the most beautiful part of Venice. There's a little pizzeria here where we always take the students, unfortunately there was a sign on the door "Chiuso per lutto riapriamo domenica 10". With my non-existent Italian I couldn't read it although I was sure it meant closed. Thanks to good old Mr. Margene (who has done this trip before) he translated and texted us. They were closed for mourning. However, we did the next best thing...walked into the little deli and played charades and communicated the best we could with the lady behind the counter and ended up with a PICNIC! Picnic in the park for a fraction of the cost and it was "FANTASTICO"! That's a new word I learned this time around. The lady laughed with us and waved "Chow".
We had olive bread, white bread, pesto, olives, ham carved from the slab, cheese sliced from the block and gelato. Mmmm Mmmm good! Why people don't visit here I'll never know.
As the evening sunlight faded we packed up and headed back. Of course halfway back 7 of students were hungry again so here we go...
A couple of the guys were very very brave and ordered the Black Ink Cuttle Fish Pasta (too brave for me)
*****Picture of the Day!*****
The rest of the way back to our hotel just wrapped it up because of course they (not me) had to have one last Italia jacket and one last gelato. Yes, I can assure you they're going to be back someday.
We've got 2 private water taxis picking us up early in the morning to whisk us to the train station. The only thing standing in our way are 5 flights of stairs and luggage. Yikes. Tomorrow is Loooooong travel day with several connections along the way. Please pray for travel safety and rest on the train and good weather in our little Alpine Village of Murren. We've prayed for good weather, and I hope you have too. It looks like rain in the forecast, and we'll have a great time in the rain if we must...but it sure would be nice to have a little sunshine, too. Hope you enjoy the pictures from today. It's been an absolute blast.
Good night from Venice.
Thanks for the update. Looks like solo much fun!
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