I am JPond: Day 16: Oh, Venezia!

May 14th, 2012 ---

The constant travelling that is involved in this trip is beginning to catch up with me. I've been more and more tired in the mornings and this morning was no different.

I woke up around 11am to someone hacking up a lung in the hallway. It sounded so awful I almost went into the hall to see if the guy was alright. I got ready and headed out to go walk along the streets and canals.

I walked around for about an hour looking at all the Venetian decorative architecture, watching gondolas cruise by, admiring all the window displays along a street with Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Pucci, Prada and many other huge designer boutiques. Then I walked passed a little shop with sandwiches and wine!

I went in, grabbed myself a salami sandwich, small piece of Brie and a small bottle of Prosecco. I found a little corner spot on some quiet stairs leading into the canal and perched myself on the ledge. I took out my cup, popped the bottle, sitting in the sunshine watching gondolas pass by while enjoying my lunch.

It was such a great little spot! So enjoyable! It was nice to just sit and bask in the sunshine with my glass of wine while reading a book for a little bit. Those times are the nicest parts of the afternoon.

I continued to walk around the city for another few hours before heading back to my hotel early evening to sort out my tours on the cruise and my accommodations for my next trip to Croatia.

This morning I had purchase a ticket to a Vivaldi orchestral & opera performance for the evening at 8:30. So around 6, I put on my pretty little pale pink skirt and heels and off I went to the square!

The great thing about San Marco square is all the quarters playing classical music outside a few other restaurants. It adds so much to the culture and enjoyment of Venice. I found myself a small round table, ordered a glass of wine and a veggie plate and took out my book to kill some time.

When you order wine at this place, they bring you out a small silver platter. Your wine, some olive, chips and a few napkins all placed on it. After finishing my veggies & wine, i had left some of the chips in the dish and as I continued to read my book all of a sudden I had a group join me at my table. Not just any group, a possey of pigeons! They swarmed at the dish of chips. I think I have a slight fear of pigeons... They freak me out with their beady little eyes and dirty reputation. The man behind me is trying to help me shoo them away as I'm nervously keeping my distance from all their flapping wings, I nearly had a bird fly into me earlier today, I didn't want one ACTUALLy to fly into me now!

With the whole pigeon deal, I decided to move on somewhere else. I still had a solid 45 minutes to kill before the concert. I found another little cafe, a cute Italian boy persuaded me in. So I decided a small dessert would be in order.
As I was sitting enjoying my brownie, at the table to the right of me were a few Americans from Michigan who I chatted with for a few minutes before they headed out and then to the left of me, an older couple from Auckland, New Zealand who I also chatted with. Both couples very nice.
I love meeting new people! Its so fun to hear everyone's different stories.

At about 8:15, I walked over to the concert hall, which was a small old church next door. I found a seat on an aisle and enjoyed the orchestra and opera singers sing many classic songs for the 45 minutes the show lasted. It was also a very good show! Though the opera singers took turns singing songs so it became annoying to have to clap everytime they left the stage, then wait for the other to come out and then clap again when they came back on the stage. There was only two of them.
Sooooo... how bout you both just stay on the stage? No?

After the show I walked back to my hotel and crashed while listening to a man in the alleyway singing opera outside my window. Oh, Venice!

Tomorrow I set out on a train to Bologna, Bologna to Ancona and then a late night eight-hour ferry to Zadar, Croatia! A full day of traveling!