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May 19, 2015: Assisi/Venice

KayLynn · June 7, 2015 · Leave a Comment

It didn’t matter that we had a 6:15 am wake-up because Steve and I were up early thanks to the birds singing outside.

We got ready and I caught up on my travel journal before putting the bags out at 6:25 and heading up for coffee and breakfast.  This was our only 1 night stay on the tour.We took advantage of the quiet to enjoy the view alone for a few minutes.

One last selfie with the incredible view.

Click to enlarge

Breakfast didn’t have the range of choices as in Rome but there was enough good things to make a meal.  Again, the runny eggs!

I had coffee (lots), a very delicious granola (with chocolate!), chocolate croissant, ham and cheese.

We walked down to the coach about 7:35 am and left promptly at 7:46 for Spello.  It was about a 25 minute drive there where we met Marco. Spello is now our third walled city (Rome and Assisi are the first two).

We started walking and I couldn’t have told you which streets we took for all the money in the world.  We kept going up and through little alleys.  Marco told us about the architecture where we could see three layers.

Roman gates

There is a roman floor, the medieval floor and the renaissance floor. You could see the layers and the main difference other than color was the windows.

Public water source
More mixed architecture

We saw beautiful plants and flowers.

One lady opened her window and through Marco chatted with us.

She was adorable!

The church,  Santa Maria Maggiore, is so plain outside that I was shocked to see the baroque decorations and chandeliers inside.

Entrance to Santa Maria Maggiore

It was over the top. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the frescoes but I did get the sculptures on the wall.

click to enlarge

We continued walking through the town as a group.

click to enlarge

Then Marco gave us 20 minutes to use the public restrooms, shop or wander around.  We bought a couple of half liters of water at a coffee bar and looked through a store before meeting up with the group.

This tour took almost two hours and was worth every penny, oops I mean euro, to me.  Steve didn’t care for it but I think Marco’s storytelling style annoyed him.

The rest of the tour group was waiting with the bus outside the city walls and we headed for Venice.  The scenery in Umbria was incredible (sorry but I’m running out of words).

Steve caught me exiting the bus’s restroom

Right after noon, we stopped for a lunch break at a roadside restaurant.  Steve had a giant hamburger and I had red wine, cheese ravioli and a green salad.

Along the way, Brad described the rest of the itinerary and remaining optionals. We selected them all except San Gimignano because it conflicts with tickets to the Uffizi Gallery.

We stopped again after another two hours for a restroom/snack break and then finished the drive to Venice.  Right before getting to the parking area, we passed the Fincantieri shipyards and saw the newest Holland America ship, Koningsdam, in the yard.
A view of Venice from the bus parking area

Our luggage was quickly offloaded and headed to the hotel before the group.  We had four water taxis (10 people each) which drove us right up to the hotel’s dock.

Our luggage arriving at the hotel dock.

We are staying at the Eurostars Residenza Cannaregio.  It is a former monastery and hundreds of years old. Once again have room 101 and I think its because of my last name.  We were the first key called.

It’s much larger than the first hotel and even the second which is nice.Unfortunately were on the bottom floor and don’t have much of a view and it’s dark.  On the plus side we have wood beam ceilings and cute arched windows.

Building across the street

After a 90 minute or so rest, it was time to meet for dinner.  We walked to a nearby craftsman, Fabro, who had a metal workshop.

Brad and Fabro

This man was the last of his family to work the craft. He mostly does gates and fences now, but also work for artists. They’re not allowed to use the foundry anymore due to safety regulations.

We continued on to the restaurant for the included dinner.

Scenery on the way to the restaurant
vegetable display across from the restaurant
barbershop directly across from the restaurant
Street in front of restaurant

We sat with Sue and Dan from Nashville tonight.

Dinner was a pasta course, followed by veal with potatoes and zucchini, with panna cotta for dessert.

We had a choice of one wine, beer or soda included. We liked it all.

Afterwards, we took a water taxi to St Marks Square along the grand canal to kick off the magical Venice optional.

It was wonderful seeing all the palaces and sights along the grand canal.

Rialto Bridge

Lollipop art at Centurion Palace

 

Santa Maria della Salute

Once we arrived at the square, Brad oriented us to the square and told us not to walk between the columns (harbinger of death).

Column of St. Mark
Column of St. Theodore
Streetlamp with Venetian Glass
Happy to be in St. Mark’s Square

We had 20 minutes to walk on our own before the orchestra concert started.  Steve bought an Italia jacket for 20 euros. We sat with Pat and George (from Philadelphia) and enjoyed the one hour set.

Steve and I had gelato for our included item while others had Bellinis, caffes or beer.

It was pretty chilly so I was ready to head back when it was over. We took water taxis back to the hotel retracing our steps.  It was so beautiful seeing the lit up hotels, etc.

These types of moments were when you want to pinch yourself to see if you’re awake.  Was I really riding a water taxi in the Grand Canal?

We continued the practice of taking our shower before bed so we’re up quickly in the morning.  While in the shower I did a little laundry so they’d dry by the time we left the hotel.

The bathroom got flooded by the time I was done but we found out the next day, it was impossible to avoid with the bad seal on the retractable
door.

STEPS: 10,804 for 4.44 miles

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Filed Under: Italy Tagged With: Assisi, Italy2015, Venice

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