Motto Bene, Venice

We made it to Venice from Milan with out a problem. The night before we left we had dinner at a place called da Bice, which is suppose to be a trendy restaurant in Milan. It was recommended by our guide. Yoko had ossobucco; I had veal cutlet Milanese style. The food was good...but Yoko's veal is MUCH better.

We took a train from Milano Station from 12:55 and arrived in Venice around 3:30 PM. The only incident to report about the train ride was the difficulty in finding our reserved seats. We were in First Class, Coach 1, seats 13 and 15. When we got onboard, there was no seat 13 and 15. The first number I saw started at 21... Well after searching around, we finally found someone who could show us the seat. For some reason, our seats were right before 21...but not in order!

When we got to Venice we had someone greet us and take us by private launch to the Gritti Palace Hotel, which is right on the Grand Canal. We have really enjoyed the city. The first night Yoko and I went exploring and tried to get lost in the narrow streets. Everywhere you turn is a picture. We had a nice dinner that night at a place we found. I had penne arabiata, Yoko had a pizza.

On the first full day in town we had a guided tour of Murano and Burano islands. Murano is where they make Venetian glass; Burano is famous for it fisheries and lace making. The glass blowing was fun to watch but then we were captured customers. They took us on a private tour of the showroom, with the salesman following us around. It was hard to not buy something! We broke down and purchased a glass sculpture, which we are having shipped home. I am sure we paid way too much, but one thing I have learned about the Italians is, if there is a way to make money, they are going to take it!

When we got got back from the tour we went to the Peggy Gugenheim museum of modern art. That was a very interesting collectioin. They had lots of artists that were living at the turn of the century. Turns out that Gugenheim was determined to use her inherited wealth to support living artists. These included Jackson Pollack, Picasso, Miro, etc. She moved to Venice, purchased a "palace" that she rennovated into a residence and museam and for the next 30 years lived here supporting the arts. Nice life, eh?

By far the best thing we have done so far is to attend an evening concert in a church next to San Marco Piazza. This was a once hour concert with a chamber orchestra featuring a saprano and tenor. The concert featured the most famous Italian arias from Vivaldi and Puccini. The music and the setting was so beautiful. All I could think was how happy my father would have been to be there to hear this. I was overcome with emotion and just lost it. Yoko and I both thought that this had been a highlight of the trip so far. Afterward (around 9 PM) we had dinner and ended the evening at a piano bar.

The next day we had a guided tour of the back streets of Venice. She took us to the Palazz0 Deucele, which was really quite large and lavishly decorated. Our guide explained the history of Venice, how the city was made, the government, the arts, etc. I thought to myself while listening to all of this that it would really be good to have all American high school students come to Europe and spend a week or two learning about European history. When I was in school it was hard to understand...but coming here helps to bring clarity.

After the morning tour, we found a Japanese restaurant, where would could have sushi and miso for lunch. (Not the best Japanese I have ever had.) The rest of the afternoon we spent exploring. In San Marco square they had a small orchestra playing, so we spent time in the cafe there listening to the music. I discovered something called the hot shot, which is galleano, expresso and cream, in three layers in a clear class. The galleano is yellow and sits on the bottom, the expresso is on top and the cream sit on top. Delicious.