Day 11 - Don't worry, you didn't step on a body

Today we had one goal and one goal alone: go swimming. Supposedly, the neighboring town of Corneglia had a beach, so we wanted to go there. But seaside path to that town was closed. So we figured we would take the path to Riomaggiaro (sp?) since it was easier than taking the mountain path to Corneglia, which was over two hours and Maria was not in the best of health.

But surprise, surprise! The dell alamore path was ALSO closed. So we changed our destination back to Corneglia's beach and paid 4 euro for the 2 minute train ride.

Only to discover that it doesn't actually have a beach! The first place we tried to go down to the water had a broken staircase. Is everything here broken?

So then Myra referenced her phone and found directions to the marina where we could swim. So we climbed the zillion and a half stairs up to the town, then the half zillion steps down to the marina and by the time we got there the sun was gone and the waves had started to crash with more vigor. But we persevered! We sat on the boat ramp and let the water come to us. It was great fun :)

After "swimming" we walked back up the stairs and found a restaurant. The food was ok.

Then we ate gelato, which was amazing. The basil flavor was one of the best we'd had since arriving in Italy.

Finally we started back to Manarola. After showering and freshening up, we headed out in search of food. We went to the bar restaurant that Mia read had excellent views and good value for food. They were not disappointed (except Chen, who though pesto on toast would include more than pesto on toast). We had to split into two groups, since the restaurant was really crowded and the tables tiny.

So Chen and Maria headed back once they were done, while the others lingered, enjoying the sunset over the town and eating the homemade lemon cake. After which, we headed to the cemetery, which was pretty and had more lovely views of the city.

Mia concluded this was her favorite day of the trip.

Day 10 - We Move Westward

From Venezia to Monarola, the first step is to pay 7,50 Euro to ride the water bus along the Grand Canal. It's a much better experience, physically and mentally, then dragging luggage over like a hundred of Venice's 400-odd bridges.

Then we got some more gelato (best flavor was Creamy Venetian, which was candied orange with fudgy chunks) before departing via train towards the Cinque Terre.

As a side note, Mia curses the Blogger site and hopes her readers appreciate the suffering she endures in order to post these things.

When we reached Monarola, we had to accept that the weather had followed us there, and it was time to pull out umbrellas. After checking in to our cute apartment up 5 flights of stairs, we went out to buy groceries and dinner, went in to eat said dinner ('take-away pizza'), then went out again to explore the village.

The rain lends its own beauty to the landscape. We got great pictures wandering around by the shore. Then, drenched and tired, at last we retired to our rooms.

Day 9 - Sunshine Exploring

Since Mia's cold was kicking her butt, she sat out of the walking tour when Myra and Terra went to it. Chen and Maria went shopping.

The walking tour was actually not a tour at all, but a 'gathering of members' of a non-profit organization (which we all joined), and thus did not compete with the paid tours of the city. (Because they don't like competition here or something.) The tour focused on the construction of Venice, an ordeal that took 900 years and finished around the 1500s. Fleeing to the real islands to escape barbarian invasions, the people eventually decided to make their home permanently on the lagoon, but when they filled up the real islands they had no choice but to make more, and thus Venice was born.

The way each of the 118 islands was constructed is summed up thus: a wall of brick around the perimeter to keep the mud (and water) in, lots of trees to force the mud to the surface and compact it, layers of wood on top gave a stable enough foundation they could lay floors of 'waterproof' rock and top that with houses or large stone churches or whatever.
It seems like a lot of work, but the varying depth of the lagoon meant that unless they had the knowledge or the charts, invaders couldn't get to the islands of Venice.

During the tour the guide pointed out common markers in the city and what they mean. The city is speckled with old 'wells' which were never really wells at all, since they brought water in not from a natural underground source but were basically rain barrels and collected water from other pipes and gutters. Road names hold hidden (for a tourist) meanings. Rio Tera are 'buried canals'; the city had many more canals until Napoleon took charge and didn't like the city much. Campo San xxx is the field of saint xxx, since there used to be farmers and fields and each little island had its own church. (That's why there are so many churches.) And so on.

There are 3 locations we visited that I will attempt to briefly explain: the church of good health, the customs point, and the church without the facade.

San Maris Della Salute - the church of good health - was named so because the entire purpose of this huge stone church was to appease the gods so they would stop sending the plague that kept killing off 1/3 of the population. They'd tried several smaller churches, but finally, with this church, that required extra effort to build because it is in the deepest canal, as they began construction, the plague left and hasn't been back (this was the 1600s).

Venice can be described to visitors as being shaped like a fish, the train station being the eye, S Mark's Square being in the belly, and the bottom protrusion being a fin. At the tip of the fin is the customs point, where ships from across the sea would pass through on their way to the rest of the city (or the mainland, maybe). Although it does not have many natural resources, besides maybe clay to make bricks, Venice is a prime location for trade, and that's really where it got most of its money.
But Venice degrades quickly. The high tides of the canals deposit salt that creeps up the buildings and slowly destroys them. It is expensive to maintain, especially because no one can update the materials / look of the buildings since the entire city is protected by UNESCO.
Obviously they get a lot of income from tourism, but this doesn't always help. The guide explained how when cruise ships come into Venice (during high season up to 5 a day) they go through one of the canals, and when they do because of their size they displace the mud of the foundations.

Non sequitor: in Venice there are street-performing cellists.

Il Martirio di San Pantalon (aka Panta Leone) -- At first glance, this church appears plain.

The holes in the front are where they would hang the front facade... if they hadn't run out of money commissioning the largest canvas (over 400 meters long) painting ever to cover the ceiling of this church.
The canvas portrays the saint Panta Leone (shortened to Pantalon in the Venetian dialect), with Heaven at the top, and parts of the canvas stick out to point at the altar. It was impressive and quite pretty. No pictures allowed. Oops.

The next adventure for the day took Mia, Myra, and Terra onto the canals for a rowing lesson. What we learned on was not actually a gondola but enough like it that, having taken this lesson, we could row a gondola.
Well not really (it supposedly takes gondoliers about 3 years) but it's an experience.

Each of us learned the front oar and the back oar. The back oar does the navigating as well as rowing, so when you have just one, it's the back one. It was challenging to row correctly, and even more to row in sync, but it was nice to be out on the water and to see a couple of the streets from the canals (the way Venice is meant to be seen).
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On the way home we ate gelato :D

Dinner was pasta again. The first night we did a red sauce, the second night a white sauce, the third night a rose sauce. Superb.

Day 8 - The rain in Venice definitely makes it to the ground

Today we we set to explore the museums of Saint Mark's square, starting with the Doge's Palace. Finding the palace proved to be a bit of an adventure. First we were ambushed by the pigeon guy, that guy that grabs your hands and forces pigeon feed into them, then sprinkles little pieces on your head to the pigeons will perch there, then once it is all gone, tries to get you to give him money. Chen gave in, Mia did not.

Then we went into a fancy building that turned out to be a basilica and going through it felt like a cattle run tunneling into the butcher's shop. We came out better than the cattle at least. Finally, we found the actual destination (the palace) and happily explored the fancy rooms with the amazing painting on every wall.

The Doge was the ruler of Venice (sometimes called the Duke of Venice) for like 1000 years. The palace was the seat of governance, though I think he lived there too. The palace was also connected to the prison by the Bridge of Sighs. The prison was much nicer than I was expecting, but still not on my list of places to spend the night.

After a couple of hours of exploration, we finally set out for our second activity of the day, a kayak tour. On the way we tried to stop for lunch, first at a place that seated us, brought us drinks, then told us we had to order 4 pizzas when we wanted only two. So we left (we did ask about sharing before being seated). So at the second place, we made it very clear we were sharing pizzas. Since they were advertising free drinks, we were pretty sure we were going to get scammed somewhere, and sure enough when the bill came it had a 2 euro per person service charge. We were pretty pissed off, but not a lot could be done.

Then when we barely made it in time for the tour, we discovered it was canceled due to the storm warning. Yay...

So to console ourselves on the rainy way back, we split a large slice of nugget (torrone morbido). It was very yummy.

Then in order to punish ourselves further, we went to yet another museum (because it was included in our ticket). It was kind of pretty and interesting, but the Doge's palace was more interesting and we had just seen it in the morning.

Then we made yet another stop at the grocery store, went back to the apartment and made dinner, then retired for the night.

Day 7 - Night Train to Paradise?

Mission: Accomplished
We have ridden a night train in Europe. Was it everything we ever dreamed it would be?

Mia, Terra, and Myra shared a sleeper cabin—a private room with our own bathroom—luxuries of luxuries. That should have skewed our opinion in a positive order.

Sadly, a train of unfortunate events plagued the experience. Due to "technical difficulties" the train was delayed first 15 minutes, then 45, then 5, then 10... for a total of about an hour and a quarter. Instead of 9:30, we were in our cabins after 10:30 and very tired and cold from standing around the platform for so long. Chen and Maria shared a room with 4 others, the rest of us had the upgraded room.
But the private bathroom was not in order. We waited up about an hour until finally we were told it just wasn't going to work. Not only did it not work, it had backed up, so even opening the door made the whole room smell horribly. Which as you may imagine ruined the experience.

Then the conductor made up for the lost time by going super fast the first few hours (at least) which was not the most comfortable sleeping environment. The beds were hard anyway, and the pillows, as Mia described it, "little torture devices".

We were served breakfast in the morning. Enough to get us started before we arrived.

Lounge access + private cabin + private bathroom + breakfast + juice and wine and goodie bags - private bathroom - comfort - pleasant smells - enough sleep = an overall miserable experience. Mia says "I'm not giving up on sleeper trains." Myra says "Never again will I subject myself to such torture."

On to better things... we should mention we are now in Venice, Italy. Buon Giorno!

Our train pulled in around 8:30am (on schedule), and (after checking our luggage) from the train station we trekked through the maze that is the island of Venezia. Unable to pick up the key to our apartment until 2, we had 5 hours to wander aimlessly. And wander aimlessly we did, through streets and alleys and plaza after plaza, over canal after canal, marveling at the impressive sights and the worn-out condition of the city. A little wayward cafe served us cappuccino and croissants and hot chocolate, to our delight. They were the best chocolate croissants ever, and the snack kept us going through the day.

Following the wandering, we picked up our luggage, already worn out from lack of sleep and much walking, then lugged the bags across the city... over just about every canal bridge and probably hundreds of stairs. It took an hour. This is not recommended.

Our apartment is cute but old-fashioned, with no dishwasher, an ancient washing machine, lots of windows, and mirrors on the shutters to provide a view of the canals.
Once we cleverly figured out how to start the washing machine and keep the gas stove lit it turned into a comfortable place to stay!

Adventures to find a supermarket were followed by some naps and general laziness until Myra decided to kick people into gear with a snack of coffee and apples, then for dinner we made steak and red sauce with beautiful coral pasta. With this we served, in shot glasses, one of the mini bottles of sparkling white wine given to us by the train.

Dessert was tea and strawberries with melted chocolate.

We live the luxury.

Day 6 - Moseying About Vienna

Our leisurely morning ended with frantic packing as we approached our checkout time. We Seem to be having trouble judging time on this trip. Oh well.

Leaving the flat, we went to the main train station, and dropped off our luggage in a luggage locker :)
Then We Set Out to explore. We investigated a magnificent cathedral, Stephensdom, did a little shopping, found a park with food stands for lunch (hot dogs the way they were meant to be), saw a nesting swan on the canal, then made our way to the Kapuziner Crypts where most of the Austrian royal family is entombed.

The sarcophagi were amazing. There was supposed to be a guided tour available in English, but it turns out to only run Wed-Sat-a fact not stated online. So Mia read the details off of Wikipedia for the group, who mostly ignored her to take pictures and look at the carvings. But she learned stuff, so it was ok (like how the crypts were originally built in the 1600s, but were enlarged like 4 times. Also how the sarcophagi were made of a bronze-like alloy until they started making them of actual bronze, then to emperor they decreed That Should they spend so much money and they moved to a cheaper metal: copper).

Following our underground adventures, we explored the roads from a horse-drawn carriage. It took us around to some of the sites we had wanted to see, like the palace, but were not sure if we would have time or energy to get to, and since That was the case, not having to walk was nice. Then we rode an iron carriage (the subway) to the end of the line and found a nice Turkish restaurant for dinner. Stuffed eggplant, feta-veggie salad, honey plus milk ... Which We complementary bread dipped in oil and vinegar, and a shot of Turkish black tea at the end. It was probably the best meal we had in Vienna.

Next was back to the station, where Mia, Myra, and Earth got into the lounge OBB Because They paid bucketloads of money to get sleeper tickets and were thus blessed with the honor of an amazing coffee machine and snacks.

Their night train adventures had only Begun ....