Day 4: Cinque Terre

I woke early and sat on my balcony watching the local workers of Monterosso scuttle about. I journaled about the previous day and felt the sea breeze blow. Fishing boats littered the shore, catching tonight's dinner as the sun gradually rose above the mountains.


Before we begin, let's discuss hydration.  I have never craved water as badly as I craved it in Italy.  Water was of the utmost importance.  In Italy in July, it was close to 90 degrees F everyday. In most cases, we were walking several miles per day- almost all day.  We were estimating at least 26 miles and several thousands of stairs when we lost track. Between the heat and the physical exhaustion, we quickly learned that we needed to have water on us at almost all times if possible.  In Italy, most stores and stands sell 1.5 Liter giant water bottles.  We started buying these and would plow through one in a matter of minutes because we were so dehydrated.  Eventually, we just started carrying one with us everywhere we went and sometimes even refill it wherever we could.  By the way, we learned this a bit late, but in both Venice and Rome, there are several public fountains placed all over the city- in piazzas and campos, on corners- everywhere.  This water is perfectly drinkable and is actually very good!  Once we figured this out we refilled our giant water bottle several times per day, which made the heat and exertion tolerable and our costs down. We tried to keep track of how many liters of water we had gone through, but last track somewhere in the twenties... Take water everywhere with you! We also bought water at almost every restaurant whether or not we ordered wine or another beverage.  Water at restaurants is not free.  A good price is either €1 or €2 for a decent-sized glass bottle.  However, be sure to order your water "naturale" or say "no gas". We learned the hard way that most Italians drink soda water... yuck!


On the fourth day of our adventure we simply enjoyed the gorgeous Cinque Terre.  We got moving around 8:00 am and ventured down to the the train station.  The Monterosso train station is literally about 100 meters down the road from our hotel.  Here we sought the Park/Tourist desk, which is a separate desk located in the train station, and we bought a train and trail card.  You need to pay in order to hike the Cinque Terre trail, although it is considered a park.  However, you can buy a combo train and trail pass which allows you to hike whatever portions of the trail you like, as well as you use the train unlimited between the five towns throughout the day.  This way we could hike portions and skips towns easily if wanted to.  In fact, this was almost necessary due to the fact that one section (as of July 2012) between Manarola and Corniglia is still closed due to reconstruction due to the 2011 mudslides.  We purchased our day train and trail pass for about €10 each.  We bought them from a woman at the tourism office at the train station who was very unfriendly. She was definitely tired of the tourists, since we were in the high season, and she did not give us our change, and we did not argue. It was such a small amount and so far we had learned while in a foreign coiuntry, we had to choose our battles. We have now come to the conclusion that service in Italy is either outstanding or dreadful.


After purchasing our Cinque Terre , we walked down to the beach and reserved a spot.  Yes- most of the beaches here are owned and therefore charge for use.  There are two free beaches in Monterosso, but they are very rocky with little sand, small, crowded, and have no conveniences.  Reserved spots fill up fast! We paid  €23 for a spot on the beach for the entire day.  This included two lounge chairs, an umbrella with a small table, and use of the bathrooms and showers.  It sounds hefty and maybe it is, but it was worth it since we used it for several hours later in the day.  But first we planned to eat breakfast and then hike!  

Breakfast at La Spiaggia

We walked the few steps from the beach back to our hotel where breakfast was now being served. Again, it was a nice spread of the typical Italian breakfast.  Hard-boiled eggs, yogurt, cereal, fruit, pastries, meats, and cheeses. 

Meanwhile, from our view out of the window, the local produce truck pulled up. It distributed fresh veggies, farm fresh eggs, and more to the locals right out of the back of the truck!  Even the local restaurants were lined up at the back of the truck, which we found out comes by daily, to stock up on fresh herbs and goods for that night's dinner!  

We then departed by train for the opposite end of the Cinque Terre trail and started our hike in Riomaggiore.  The stretch of the trail that goes from Riomaggiore to Manarola is by the far the easiest.  Named the "Lover's Lane", it is a basically a  paved sidewalk and took only 25 minutes to walk.

 

Along the way, we saw many padlocks decorating nets and over bridges.  We found this to be common and learned from some Australian friends hiking the trail that this is common in Europe.  Lovers carve their names or initials on a padlock, clip it on a bridge or near the sea, and throw the "key to their heart" away in the water. Unfortunately, in this area, people were adding much more than padlocks.  We saw some very interesting items added to the nets: plastic bags, underwear, and even diapers...

We arrived in Manarola and then took the train to Vernazza, skipping Corniglia.  As mentioned earlier, the stretch from Manarola to Corniglia is still closed, and Corniglia is much higher up on the cliffs warranting an extra bus ride.  For this reason, we moved on directly to Vernazza, preparing to hike the most difficult stretch between Vernazza and Monterosso. Although we were only on it for a short 10 minute jaunt between towns, this bus was our first double-decker, and we sat on the top! 

We hopped off in Vernazza and has to walk through town in order to get to the rest of the Cinque Terre trail.  There were no directions, but in such a small town, we figured we would eventually find it.  Besides Monterosso, Vernazza was hit the hardest from the floods and mudslides last October and the reconstruction was a little more evident here.  Crews were had at work restoring roads and buildings, although it was not overbearing and tourists were already crawling over this sweet little town. See more about this town's reformation here. We enjoyed these beautiful views from the harbor of Vernazza: 

Love this pic! 

We eventually found the opening of the trail- a set of stone stairs wedged between two old stone buildings- and it began to climb fast!  There were SO many stairs!  We just kept going up and up and up... Many people we talked to during and after the hike agreed that it really was a fairly difficult hike, even for avid hikers.  It was definitely doable, but more challenging than you would expect.  It is almost all uphill in either direction, but it is highly recommended that you go in the direction from Vernazza to Monterosso rather than the other way around, as the ascent is even steeper and rougher on the knees going in that direction. It took us about an hour and a half to do this portion of the hike. Regardless of the difficulty, the views were outstanding!

We saw this cat on a picnic table placed randomly on the trail, along with a sign that  indicated that he lives here and donations of food or money to feed him are to be left in a lock box.  

Sam on the CT trail. 

The trail is VERY narrow in some spots- barely big enough for one person.

Heading back down towards Monterosso.

Once we arrived back in Monterosso around 12:30 pm, we quickly headed to the hotel, changed into our swimsuits, and rented beach towels from our hotel.  These were  €2.50 each and totally worth it to not have to pack beach towels in our bags. Sam was debating buying a snorkel all day, but they were almost  €20.00, and we would have to throw it away when we were done due to lack of space.  Then we saw someone throw one away on our way down to the beach and we reluctantly grabbed it out of the garbage. We took it back and washed it thoroughly and even soaked it in liquor to try and decontaminate it!  We were laughing about the ridiculousness of this, but we were too cheap to spend that much on a one-time-use snorkel!   We marched straight out to our reserved beach spot in the front row.  All of the rest of the spots were taken by this time, but ours awaited us!  Sam immediately went swimming and snorkeling. On the other hand, I went to sleep on my lounge chair and soaked up some rays with the long strap of my purse wrapped completely around my waist and my hand over it to avoid any pickpockets. Yes, this is a big problem in Italy!

A bit later I also went swimming in the sea and then we took a break to split a tomato and mozzarella panini and 2 large Peroni's we bought from the local beach snack bar, Stella Marina Bar.  It was actually quite good.  Read the review here. We also enjoyed some fresh coconut we bought from a vendor.  We stayed on the beach for about five wonderfully relaxing hours. 

Later we made another stop at the local grocery store, La Bottega and then tried to hit Cantina Micky for dinner since we had heard such great reviews, but unfortunately they are closed on Wednesday nights, so we missed out.  Instead, we decided to go to Bar Gio next door, which was actually only steps from our hotel. We sat outside under the stars and enjoyed the evening ocean air.  We ordered the "menu turistico" (a predetermined menu that includes several courses and usually wine).  We started with two appetizers including the area specialty- seafood!  We started with a plate of fresh anchovies and then a fritto misto- a mixed fried seafood appetizer, including fresh calamari, anchovies, and shrimp.  For those of you that know me well, you know that I despise all seafood, but considering I was in Italy and on the coast known for its phenomenal seafood, I was brave and tried both the shrimp and calamari.  I am glad I did!  Then Sam had the trofie pesto, and I ordered the spaghetti alla bolognese followed by a fresh salad. We split a 1/2 carafe of the house white wine. Bon apetit!

Fresh anchovies

Fritto Misto

Spaghetti all Bolognese

Trofie with Pesto- a CT specialty!

Yummy salad with fresh mozzarella! 

After dinner we went back up to our room, drank a bottle of wine made by the owner of our hotel (It wasn't that great), and sat on our balcony before going to bed.  This night was much more quiet than the night before and a good night's sleep was had by all accompanied by the sea breeze blowing in our window. 

Day 3: Venice to the Cinque Terre

On our third day in Italy, we woke up early at 6:00 am. We were a little overzealous, as we knew we had to walk to the train station to catch our 8:30 am train.  Although we knew which way we intended to go, by now we knew better that it doesn't always work out that way in Venice.  So we wanted to leave ample time in case we got lost once again. We went downstairs to check out, which ended up being a fairly lengthy process.  As I have mentioned in this previous post, I had verified with the owners that I could pay in Traveler's Cheques in American dollars.  Although these are not commonly used anymore (and almost impossible to use in many places), several private B & B's such as this still take them, since they have a cash-only policy due to high costs of accepting credit cards.  Since we were staying in many places such as this on our vacation, we got traveler's cheques to lessen the amount of actual cold, hard cash we had to carry. Although the owner had pre-approved this- and of course he was not here- the man on duty seemed extremely confused by this.  He made several calls (at 7:00 am) to the owner because he was not sure of the procedure or how to handle the exchange rate between dollars and euros.  After about 20 minutes of figuring this out, we were on our way toward the Santa Lucia train station with only one wrong turn. We even stopped by a small bakery in an alley and picked up two pastries to go for only €2.40. 

At least the cappuccino was pretty...

We arrived with plenty of time to spare so we decided to stop by a small coffee shop next door- just at the stairs of the Scalzi Bridge. It is called Bar Olimpia.  See the full review here. Never. Go. There.  We got suckered into this high-tourist trap since it was so conveniently located next to the train station. Sam ordered a cappuccino, and I ordered a small bottle of Coca Cola Light.  We sat down and relaxed as we waited for boarding time.  When our bill came we were in shock!  His cappuccino was €3 and my soda was €6!!!  Those are insane prices, and I don't think I will ever forget my diet coke that cost me about 8 bucks!  We grudgingly paid and left, griping all the way back to the station.  Lesson learned!  


We still had quite a bit of time, so we sat on the train station steps and watched the world go by...brave squatters sleeping on camping mats on the station steps, vaporetto buses carrying the rush hour load, and travelers entering the city for the very first time.  Here are a few more Venice pictures before we depart: 

Gondoliers..we only watched.  They are quite expensive! 

The fresh produce boat outside our hotel. 

Musicians who were playing songs from the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack in front of a church????

A boat full of wine! 

Leslie boarding the train.

We then easily boarded the train and found our seats.  The trains are very well-kept and super easy to figure out.  Actually, the train travel ended up being a very enjoyable part of our trip.  With no security lines and easy do-it-yourself machines to buy your tickets, it is fairly hassle-free. Just don't forget to validate your ticket (time stamp it) in one of the small yellow or gray and green machines on the platform before you board!  Trenitalia employees came through and checked our tickets for validation on every single train we rode.  If you do not, there are hefty fines.  Luggage is stowed overhead or behind your seat and the seats are fairly roomy- about double the size of an airline seat.  Most newer trains have a table in front of you as well.  Once you are moving (and they go pretty quick!), you can simply enjoy the scenery, read a book, or chit chat with those around you.  In fact, we met so many different people from all over the world during our many train rides! On this trip, we met a woman from North Carolina who used to live in Italy.  She gave us several useful tips about the culture of the country. This particular train ride was our longest, as we were headed to the opposite coast- from the Adriatic Sea to the Ligurian Sea. Our route included two legs that totaled about 6 hours- from Venice to Milan and from Milan to Monterosso al Mare.

During the second leg of our trip, we were in a small cabin with four others- a young couple from Canada who were traveling Europe for the summer, as well as a couple vacationing from Switzerland.  We had nice casual conversation. Sam and I lunched on a mozzarella and tomato sandwich that we bought at the Milan train station.  We both read books on our iphones and soaked in the scenery of the mountains of northern Italy. Once we rolled into Genoa (Genova) and along the Ligurian coast, it was simply breath-taking landscape!  Here is a taste of what was to come...

Monterosso al Mare is the northern most town in a series of five (Cinque) small towns (Terre) clustered along the Ligurian Sea and within walking distance of one another.  The Cinque Terre is absolutely beautiful!  Monterosso is probably one of the most popular and touristy towns because it is the only town that has an accessible  beach.  The other towns (going from north to south)- Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore-

La Spiaggia Hotel

The private hotel we stayed at in Monterosso al Mare was La Spiaggia, meaning "The Beach" in Italian.  This is because the hotel sits directly on the beach, literally 12 feet from the sand, 10 feet from a gelateria, 10 feet from a bar/restaurant, 10 feet from an Enoteca, or wine store, and about 40 feet from the local grocery store. What more could you need?!  In addition, our second floor room had a balcony facing the sea.  See the review here.  I must say, this hotel had by far the BEST service of any place we stayed.  They were more than accommodating. Both Ella and Andrea, the owner, made you feel right at home.

Our room at La Spiaggia

The bathroom at La Spiaggia

Our balcony overlooking the beach 

Check out this video featuring the view from our hotel:

This hotel, like others, was very energy-efficient.  In order to turn on the lights or use any electricity, you have to place your key card into this holder.  Therefore, you cannot leave with the air or lights on.

We decided to walk ten minutes along the coast to old town Monterosso.  The old town is just charming- definitely a small village feel!  There are less tourists on this side of town, winding small streets and locals selling their wares.  We stumbled upon Ciak, a restaurant.  I recognized it from the reviews, and we thought we would give it a try. We sat outside in a small, shaded alley amidst the locals.  I had the BEST salad I have ever eaten.... with fresh mozzarella, corn, lettuce, tomato, onion, and carrot. (By the way- the only salad dressings available in Italy are olive oil and vinegar.) Sorry- no ranch here! The salad was perfect! It was the freshest salad I have ever had, and I remember thinking that even the lettuce tastes better in Italy! Sam had the bruschetta Romana with anchovies.  Both were excellent and the cold beer hit the spot on a hot day in July! When we were done, the waiter offered us complimentary shots of Lemoncino and shared the history of the restaurant with us- as well as gave us the honest low down on Italian tipping. See the review here. 

Lemoncino is liquor made from fresh lemons from the CT.  It is VERY sweet and VERY strong! 

Tipping in Italy is a bit more complicated than here.  First of all, servers do make more there than they do in the states.  Several "upscale" or touristy restaurants include a "cupertino" (cover charge for the extras such as water and bread) or "servizio" (tip) in your total bill.  Do not feel as if you have to tip beyond this.  However, if your service was outstanding (and it was at Ciak!), then you may leave a tip if they went above and beyond. 

Walking in old town Monterosso 

Wonderful lemons are produced here! 

After dinner we strolled through old town and visited several shops and Sam even bought some of his own lemoncino. Later he admitted he was still a bit toasty from the shot of the lemoncino at dinner, otherwise he probably would not have bought more! It was a bit too strong and sweet for us.  We couldn't even bring it back to the U.S. since we only brought carry-on's.  We ended up leaving it unopened in our room in Tuscany for some lucky travelers. 

 We then walked along the beach, dipped our toes in the water, and hit the local grocery to stock up on snacks and cheap beverages.  We bought more water, 2 small cans of coca cola light, several cans of Peroni beer, a bottle of wine, some local cheese, meat, crackers, and bread. We then took it back to our hotel, and enjoyed the drinks from our balcony with a great view!  We picnicked on the balcony and ate the cheese, meat, and crackers as a late night snack. Thank goodness for that multi-tool we bought in Venice! 

Later we chose to grab some gelato from the place literally at our hotel's doorstep, Gelateria Produzione Propria.  Horrible.  I had the hazelnut and Sam had the mora, or blackberry. I do not recommend it. The girl behind the counter could not be more rude and inconvenienced. See the review here.  The gelato was not anything to rave about- so much so that it left Sam so dissatisfied that we walked down to another gelato place (Once again...do not judge.) and tried new cones from the place down the street, which was much better.  We continued to sit outside on our balcony and people watch.  Here are some of the views of Monterosso:

We decided to go to bed at about 10:30 pm.  I had just started to fall asleep when...  along came the marching band!  What?  A marching band at 10:30 pm you say?  Yes.  At 11:00 pm on a Tuesday night.  What was the occasion?  I have no idea, but apparently this was not unusual.  They stopped directly below our balcony and almost serenaded us while a crowd gathered.  Check it out in this video: 

 Although fun, new town can be pretty loud at night.  Since we slept with our window open (no air-conditioning), it got quite noisy.  There were people drinking at the bars and restaurants below, and it was quite difficult for me to sleep.  I would guess that we had about two good hours of quiet between 3:00 am and 5:00 am before the street crews came in to empty the garbage and clean up the litter (Litter is much more prominent in Italy than that states.) and the construction crews started to arrive to work on rebuilding the parking lot across the street quite early as well. (The Cinque Terre was hit by torrential flooding and mudslides last fall.  They should be commended on their brilliant recovery! Check out Rebuild Monterosso for more details.) 

Monterosso al Mare, Italy Reviews

The following is a list of reviews of hotels, restaurants and other services during our travel to Monterosso al Mare, Italy in July 2012.

La Spiaggia Hotel, Via Lungomare, 98, 19016 Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terre, Italy
This hotel was pretty awesome.  The furnishings were not quite as lush as many of the hotels we stayed in at the same price range, but the location is pretty perfect.  It sits right on the beach in Monterosso al Mare.  It is the "new" section of town, but the old town is just a 10 minute walk up the road and there is a LOT going on at this end.  Sometimes that was good and sometimes that was bad (like if you are really tired).  We had a second floor balcony room with a wonderful view, which we spent a lot of time on.  No air conditioning, but if you leave the balcony doors open all day and night, you can get a great ocean breeze.  There was also a fan provided.  The bathroom was pretty small- not a shower you want to try and shave your legs in.  The hotel's service was outstanding- the best customer service we saw in Italy!  Both Ella and Andrea, the owner, were particularly helpful and accommodating.  They would bend over backwards to make your stay perfect, recommend places to eat in and out of town, or whatever you could possibly need. My one and only complaint is that it can get quite noisy at night.  There are people out late at the restaurants and bars just a story below and since we had the window open (we had to in that heat), we heard their drunken banter until at least 1 or 2 in the morning.  It might be better if you are on the third or fourth story and would be much more quiet (but no view) if you had a room facing the back.  Overall, I would highly recommend this hotel.  


Ciak, Via Minzoni Don, 6, 19016 Monterosso al Mare, Italy
We stumbled upon this little restaurant when we were exploring old town Monterosso al Mare.  I immediately recognized the name from reading previous reviews, so we thought we would give it a try.  We were there for an early dinner and the service was excellent.  We had two guys looking after us as we sat on the patio.  I opted for a salad with fresh mozzarella, corn, lettuce, tomato, onion, and carrot.  It was the freshest salad I have ever had, and it was delicious!  My husband had the bruschetta Romana with anchovies.  Both were excellent and the cold beer hit the spot on a hot day in July! When we were done, the waiter offered us complimentary shots of Lemoncino and shared the history of the restaurant with us- as well as gave us the honest low down on Italian tipping.  I highly recommend this restaurant!  $$


Gelateria Produzione Propria, Via Fegina, Monterosso al Mare, Italy 
This gelateria is strategically placed right on the road across from La Spiaggia Hotel and at the entrance to the beach.  Bad gelato- rather unsatisfying really and HORRIBLE service!  The girl behind the counter could not have been more inconvenienced or rude.  Plus unlike many other gelaterias, they do not give samples.  This can be helpful when you don't speak Italian... DO not go here.  It was very disappointing. 


Stella Marina Bar, Via Fegina, Monterosso al Mare, Italy 
This is just a simple beach bar and restaurant with light fare featuring cold sandwiches on ciabatta or warm paninis of all sorts.  You can sit at the tables or you can order and take it to your beach chair.  We split a mozzarella and tomato panini, and it was VERY good for a cheap meal.  We also bought two giant Peroni beers and drank them on the beach.  I think it was somewhere around €12 for the one sandwiches and two large beers.  Very good for an easy cheap meal. $


Bar Gio, Via Fegina , 92. Monterosso al Mare 19016
We went here as an alternative to Bar Micky, which was closed. It was right outside our hotel and looked decent. We had to wait fo ra table, but not more than 10 minutes. We both ordered the Menu Turistico- 2 courses plus 1/4 bottle of the house wine. This was a small carafe that held about 2 glasses of wine each. My husband ordered the trofie pesto (a specialty in the area!), mixed fried seafood appetizer as well as the anchovie plate.  I opted for the spaghetti alla bolgnese and a fresh salad. We had the white wine.  It was all very good, and I would recommend it. The service was also very good. The seafood was fresh and spectacular. $$

Day 2: Venice

Typical Italian breakfast

On the second day of our vacation, we slept in until about 8:00 am and then went to breakfast in the back garden of our hotel, Casa Rezzonico.  For those of you who may not know, Italian breakfast is nothing like American breakfast.  Rather than eggs and bacon, it is much lighter fare such as yogurt, croissants, fruit, prosciutto and cheese, or pastries. 

One view of the back garden at Casa Rezzonico

When reading some reviews online, we realized that the church or "library" from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade took place at San Barnabas Church.  According to the map, the church should be right around the corner....  so after breakfast we took off in search of the famous church where one of our favorite old-school movies took place.  We managed to get all turned around...big surprise! We could not figure out where in the world this church could possibly be...  We broke out the map and tried our best to re-navigate toward San Barnabas.  Eventually we ended up circling around and found Campo San Barnabas....RIGHT next door to our hotel, but in the opposite direction than we originally headed.  Ooops.  It is even funnier that we had walked through this campo at least six times already and by this church several times, but I guess we never took a good, hard look at it straight on (we were almost always walking into the square from behind it...) , and once we looked at it in a new light, we realized that this was the church from the movie!  We laughed so hard that we had totally missed this detail every time we saw it before and that we had just spent over an hour tracking down a church that was 100 meters (Like that metric touch?)  from our hotel! It was open so we entered the church, but it is now used to display an art exhibit on Leonardo Da Vinci.  Very interesting to me, but there was a hefty price tag to enter, so we chose not to.  Cool connection though!   

Where "X" marks the spot in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade...

Typical narrow walkway in Venice

Speaking of wrong turns, this may a good time to discuss navigation within the island of historic Venice.  First of all, let me say that maps should only be used "loosely" in Italy- especially Venice.  Venice is comprised of one main Grand Canal and several smaller offshoots-smaller canals. These are the main thoroughfares.  If you are not on a boat, you need to take to the walkways of Venice.  There are no typical streets or cars or land buses on the island.  These narrow alleys wind all over Venice- around buildings, around water, around anything.  None of them are straight.  Many of them are not even marked.  On a map, it may appear that you come to a crossroads where you can either go right or left, but when you get to that actual crossroads, it is more like your choices are to continue straight or veer to the right.  So we just learned that you have to just choose one.  You will most likely be faced with this decision about 30 times in a typical walk which leaves a lot of room for error.  To complicate things, you can usually not get a bearing of where you are located based on landmarks (if you are unfamiliar with the area as we were), because you are sandwiched between tall buildings and cannot really see out in the area around you.  8 times out of 10, you will "choose poorly" (Get it??) and end up on a completely different part of the island than you originally intended. However, the good news is that you are on a small island.  You can only go so far. We quickly learned to take this lightly and just enjoy getting lost and finding our way back.  It became a sort of an adventure.  We felt very safe in Venice everywhere we went- even in the back alleys as long as we were together.  However, as a single female, I would not be caught in these skinny walkways alone at night.  

Our next step was purchasing a day (12 hour) pass for the vaporetto, or water bus.  In hindsight, we wish we had purchased the three day pas to begin with, as then we could have just hopped on and off the vaporetto to get here or there without getting so lost. It is good to know that there are no direct walkaways immediately adjacent or following the Grand Canal.  You will have to enter the maze that is Venice and it will take a lot longer than you think.  Also, there are only four bridges that cross the main canal so you have to find your way to the next closest bridge to cross- if you can find it... This is where vaporetto pass comes in handy. No matter where you are, you can almost always find a stop along the Grand Canal. Let me add that the vaporetto can be quite pricey, but it is very worthwhile if your time is limited in anyway or if you want to venture out from the main island at all. A single-use vaporetto pass- good for 90 minutes or one trip- is  €7.  However, if you plan to be around and sight-see for at least one day, I recommend that you buy a pass, saving you a chunk of money and time.  See this sight for a list of the current prices, which by the way were raised the very day we arrived in Venice...go figure! We wanted to have free reign of the island that day and even leave the main island, so we each bought a 12 hour unlimited pass for  €12 each. 


Watch this great video of our ride along the Grand Canal from the vaporetto bus... 

We hopped on the vaporetto and headed for St. Mark's Square once more.  There Sam found his hat.  And it was another perfect picture opportunity. 

Next we jumped a vaporetto to the island of Murano- a smaller island of Venice.  There are several, but Murano is well-known for its Venetian glass.  We decided to see some glass-blowing in action.  It was a fun 25 minute boat ride out there for a fairly short (and HOT) glass blowing demonstration, but it was something different to do.

Venetian Glass Blowing Demonstration

Sam enjoying Murano

Church of Santa Maria e Donato

The island of Murano was small and somewhat uneventful, but did we take a stroll into the Church of Santa Maria e Donato. With that, we decided to head back to the historic district, find our way back to the hotel and find some grub. 

More Murano

Next we took the vaporetto back to the Ferrovia stop by the Saint Lucia train station. We stopped in and bought our train tickets for the following day to Monterosso al Mare.  This was our first time using the self-service machines, but were glad to discover that it is pretty easy (as long as you find one in working order) and they take American credit (non chip and pin) cards just fine.  For more info on how to do this, I found this site particularly helpful.  After buying our train tickets for the next day, we ventured towards home and stopped at a Snack Bar.  Unfortunately, I did not write down the cross street, but it was somewhere on the corner of Calle de Mezzo near San Polo.  There are several restaurants called "Snack Bar" throughout all Italian cities, and most of them I would not recommend, but this one was OK. There are the type of places that several pre-made sandwiches, pizza, and pasta. You pick out what you want and then reheat it for you.  We chose to sit and relax, while others get it to go.  This one was quite nice. Sam chose to get a ricotta and spinach cannelloni, while I chose just a simple pasta pomodoro (with tomato sauce). 

It was at this restaurant that we found ourselves in a conversation with other Americans- truck drivers in town from Georgia.  They had just come from Milan.  They had a bit too much to drink and invited us to tag along with them to St. Mark's Square. Although we were honored by their invitation, we politely declined and continued on our way to our hotel. Or so we thought...  We stopped by a second snack bar along the way for some very mediocre gelato.  Sam got banana. I had chocolate. We ended up getting completely lost once again- ended up somewhere in the area known as San Polo.  Here we found our very first grocery market.  We were in love!  In Italy there is almost a complete absence of any commercialism-no Home Depot, no Wal-Mart, no large grocery chains, and we only saw one ritzy McDonald's and a Burger King awkwardly crammed into some historical buildings all throughout Italy.  It felt so good not to have to rely on these franchises and just get back to basics.  This was just a family-owned market, stocked with the freshest ingredients.  We wandered through the store and bought a couple huge 1.5 liter bottles of water.  (We were seriously dehydrated.) We explored the market and bought some random items to snack on during our train trip in the morning.  We were amazed by this boxed wine that looked like a giant juice box, so we had to buy it.  And note this boxed wine only cost €3 (not €10)!

Check out the price for THREE balls of fresh mozzarella!  Outstanding! 

I think Sam's favorite part of the whole trip were the grocery stores! 

We headed home and took a one hour break in the blessed air-conditioning of our hotel room. Then we sat on the back patio of the hotel and drank some wine in the nice, cool shade. It was so hot, so Sam was desperate to find a linen shirt.  The guy at the front desk of our hotel recommended a department store near the Rialto.  The store is called "COIN". We thought we would check it out after our visit to the Rialto Bridge.

Before we embarked for the Rialto, we were really in need of our own multi-tool/pocket knife.  We figured the corkscrew would be handy for opening wine and the knife could be used to cut bread and cheese when we snacked.  We found a tiny hole-in-the-wall hardware store just by our hotel in Campo Santa Margherita and bought one after much sign language due to an obvious lack in communication. It was an awesome cultural experience!

The Rialto Bridge

The Accademia Bridge

We took the vaporetto (using our 12 hour pass) to the Rialto stop, wandered along the insanely-packed shops of the bridge where I bought my one and only souvenir- a beautiful blue and white beaded bracelet.  We then continued around the corner into a very ritzy shopping area (totally NOT us), but we eventually found COIN.  They had a couple linen shirts, but as I suspected they were way more than we are used to spending on clothing, so we opted out.  Sam was disappointed, but now had made it his mission to find a linen shirt sometime on vacation.  While we circled stores on this quest we somehow ended all the way back at St.Mark's Square again- funny how this happens! We then walked back to the Accademia Bridge. From here, we hopped on the vaporetto down to the Ferrovia stop near the mouth of the "fish" (Look at a map of Venice here.)  We crossed the Scalzi bridge and immediately came across Bar Pizzeria Vittoria.  We had passed it a couple times prior and it just looked inviting so we thought we would give it a try. It has nice sturdy wooden booths outside.  We sat, each order a glass of wine and split a margherita pizza. The food and service were both fine- nothing spectacular, but definitely not bad.  See the full review here.  

Bar Pizzeria Vittoria

Margherita Pizza

We then hopped back on the vaporetto (Thank goodness for that day pass!) and rode it all the way down the canal, awaiting sunset!  We eventually circled back to our stop.  We once again (don't judge) grabbed a gelato at Il Doge- Sam had the Italian wedding cake, and I had the Crema, similar to a custard flavor. I just found this awesome website that decodes Italian gelato flavors!  If only I had read this before we left!  We were always just guessing...  

Finally back at our hotel, we indulged in our € 3 wine in a juice box, and it was much better than the selection from the night before!  

Tune in tomorrow for more adventures when we take one last look at Venice and then head for the beach!