We spent the morning of the second day looking at cute little artist shops and visited the Da Vinci Museum. We were trying our best to catch the opera at some point in the day, and by accident visited the Gritti Palace Hotel. It was a Sunday on our second day, so many shops were closed. We booked a secret itinerary tour at the Doge palace for Monday, so we saved St. Mark’s for later. We continued wandering and getting adjusted to the map.
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I love the art in this city. I will get more into this when I talk about our masks later. Da Vinci’s Museum was also inspiring: they had constructions of his ideas. Did this guy just roll out of bed and in his day planner list: eat, build a lyre, paint religious icons, invent a war cannon, figure out how to divert a river to win a war? Jeez. Amazing!IMG_20150201_132331~2

We took the sea bus to the St. Maria stop. I really had to go washroom, and althroughout the trip, I noticed a lack of public washrooms. I saw a few, but the area we stumbled in hardly had anything. Generally, I find you must go into a restaurant and order something to use a washroom. I really had to the washroom and we walked into the first restaurant we found. My bladder has expensive taste, as we landed at the Gritti Palace Hotel. (It goes for near $1000CAD a night and up, noted for its celebrity guests) For two mimosas, it was 40 euro, but man what a nice view on the water’s edge in the outdoor seating.

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They give you some pub fare for ordering drinks. One man stood by with a broom in his hand to chase away pigeons. He gave us a napkin to hide our food from the birds too. It’s really funny, because he was an extremely well dressed man, working at this lovely hotel and his one responsibility is to chase pigeons with the broom he had in one hand. I’m happy they were accommodating to us too. Often, you have to pay cover to sit down (it ranges 2 to 10 euros), especially in places with table clothes. I noticed they didn’t put one down for us, presumably because I said I was just in this for the bathroom. I’m happy they were accommodating regardless!

Ill fate fell on us afterwards: I sprained my foot and we got lost in the winding alleys of Venice. We were looking for the Opera but ended at the wrong house. Defeated, we walked in Rialto, got a cheap slice of pizza and I winced along, looking for a pharmacy to find a wrap for my leg. I started to realize maybe this city isn’t so great for those in wheelchairs or those who can’t walk far – I had to stop constantly in snack bars to recover from my poor foot. On the bright side, most small pizza stops and kiosks on the street have beer and hard liquor. I said to myself I’d miss this country lots since Canada hardly has a stop and go liquor-hole anywhere.

We tried to go in a quieter street near our hotel, and ended up at Dolfin. At a lot of the restaurants we went to, their menus would have a first course and a second. My first was gnocchi with salmon, the second was calamari. Josh had ravioli and chicken with vegetables. If you come to Venice, have their seafood. I think the calamari at Dolfin was the best I had in the restaurants I tried while I was there: not too greasy, the batter delicious, I still think about how good this is sometimes. We both had grilled veggie salad to accompany our meals. In places with set menus they also offer dessert. The prices of these meals usually range 20 euro to 30 euro for a moderate meal, and for something fancy much higher price. I don’t recall paying more than 26 euro for a set menu/two course meal and wine.

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I hobbled back with Josh to our hotel and sat in their lounge. Might I add Hotel Papadopoli has the best bar tender ever? She was so helpful and her drinks were delicious. Josh said the long island iced teas here were the best he ever had.

IMG_20150201_223114~2Our meal came with peanuts and a nice tuna-olive mix for free. If I wasn’t so beat, I’d also help myself to the hotel’s history books on the wall behind these drinks.

Read More About Nathalie’s Time in Italy:

Part 1: Venice, Italy
Part 2: Venice, Italy
Part 3: Art in Venice
Part 4: Florence, Italy
Part 5/6: Venice x Heathrow

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