Tag Archives: Italian

So, yeah Italiahhh. pt. 2 Venezia

Aside

So, during our trip to Rome, we took a train to Venice for a day and a half. Venice in a few words: breathtaking, magical, romantic. I have never seen anything like it. It’s so old world, yet so modern. It’s the guys in the striped shirts and the striped poles that I have dreamt of, but it is so much more.

I was quite surprised when we got there, how packed it was. But we were in their “rush hour” of sorts as we got on their water metro and had to go through all of these stops with the various commuters. It was so cool how it was timed just like a modern subway. I never imagined that there would be such a thing. Maybe I am in the minority on that, but I only thought Venice would be filled with super old and musty (but gorgeous) buildings and historical spots and that part was true.

I was however surprised at the amount of luxury brands that there were. It was like stepping out onto an ancient street and seeing old world Venice and then stepping into the future within a few steps to the Venetian version of Rodeo Drive. I didn’t like that so much. But I did love our romantic and whimsical digs for the night. Hotel Flora (https://www.hotelflora.it/) did not disappoint. The embrodiered pillows, the lovely views, the fab brunch and the charm- Hotel Flora is definitely the place to stay. ML did good!

After taking a quick peek at this fab place and changing, we walked out onto the streets and breathed in the Venice air, and looked at some of the independent shops. We were starving at this point because it was around 2. We walked into a ridiculous touristy type restaurant where the servers were more like snake oil salesman. It was the worst food we had in Italy. Tip, don’t go to a place with a plastic covered patio and too anxious employees:). We did have decent food in Venice but I don’t have as much to share because of our limited time there.

Afterwards we strolled by the gorgeous iconic scenes like the Doge Palace at dusk and the gondoliers and the pigeons on the square. It was nice as it got dark because it emptied out a lot. I really wanted a gondola ride, but being the sweetheart I am, I told ML no because it was overpriced. Honestly it was getting cold and the experience seemed cheesy. I was just grateful to see it in action and didn’t want to break my guy’s wallet. Standing there with him was priceless. I just couldn’t believe I was actually there, and with my best friend.

We had a nice dinner and wine at L’Opera, and then we turned in. It was very cold at night! Bring a leather jacket if you go in November! The next morning we had the brunch- there was a yogurt table with all of the fixings, a pastry table, protein table and bread table. Fresh marmalade and yummy condiments for everything. There were tons of drink options-Hot Chocolate, Americanos, Cappuccinos. We could not believe all of this was part of our stay. They did not skimp on any detail and the head chef (pictured below) had videos on the screen showing how to make dishes.

After stuffing myself, we headed towards Doge Palace for the tour since it was closed the day before, and walked tons seeing as much possible. On a whim, we crossed the water to another island that was the part of Venice that we loved the most. I got gorgeous cobalt blue Murano glass earrings at a Glimpse of Venice, a place with magnificent handmade jewelry . All of the businesses on this side were independent and just beautiful. I had to get a slice of pizza there that tempted me in a window and ML got a gelati (of course) before saying goodbye to this mystical and special place.

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We really did not want to get back on the “metro boat” to get off at the stop for the train. The trip was absolutely incredible and a dream come true albeit short, but I am so blessed to have gone there. I would recommend at least 3 days, but 2-2 1/2 full days would suffice. We had maybe 27 total hours and it flew by. If you do get to go and you take my hotel recommendation and go to the other side of Venice where there aren’t so many people, you can get a true taste of Venice in its amazing and mesmerizing splendor.

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Cool musician we met on the “other side”

Thanks for reading. I will be posting more about Italia in the future, hopefully you won’t get sick of reading about it!:)

simply~

Dee

Poetry can be found everywhere and in many things, even in blogging…

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I was watching one of my new favorite spy shows today on my Amazon-The Americans, and I realized that the Russian language can be very beautiful and even poetic sounding. I was in the shower and listening to it and I think if I had been watching the people and listening, I would not have picked up on the beauty.

I always thought that Russian and German and many of the Eastern European languages sounded a bit harsh, with no melody. And, I am not against those people or anything, I am of German heritage. I just never thought that they held the romance that French or Italian does. Then, I heard someone speaking Russian at Barnes and Noble one day and I thought that it was French. I guess maybe different regions speak it in different ways with different accents. Very similar to the way that the U.S. is with Northern accents, Southern accents and Midwestern accents.

So between that day and this television show, I realized that if we listen close enough or even look close enough that poetry and beauty is all around us in so many situations. That person that angrily beeped when you didn’t go through the light fast enough could be coming from the house of her sister who has dementia and maybe she in a hurry to get to her job to help pay the bills for them both. Or, that annoying person that answers for an insurance company when calling about claims that has a thick accent and can’t seem to understand anything, she/he is working for nickels and learning English in the process and for them it is a great feat.

I am sometimes the person honking the horn, and I am sometimes the one who gets annoyed. In the midst of my annoyance, I truly do try to think of people and though they may seem selfish or dense, who knows what is going on in their life. There are tons of things that happen where ugly and evil are written all over these particular incidents. But somehow, in the midst of a storm in life, you will hear something beautiful. Like the mom who forgave the person who killed her son. Or the person that risked their life to get one more person out of the burning building. I do not know how I spun hearing the Russian language spoken on a show into all of this. Nevertheless, beauty and poetry are everywhere, and our creator is the author and artist of it all.

Simply~

Dee