You & Me in the Mediterranean. Day 2

Day 2 Venice

Adventure 5. Breakfast at the Hilton. Amazing. fruit tart, different breads, mermeladas, a vast selection of cold cuts, over 10 different kinds of CHEESE??? New yogurts, fruits, grapes the size of a silver dollar. Sausages that melt in your mouth. Delicious.

Adventure 6.
The tours. Tour of the doges' palace or palazza ducola, a glimpse of venetian architecture, the art is ON THE WALLS, THE CEILING, BUILT INTO THE FLOOR. I was very impressed at the workmanship and craftsmanship in front of me. People really took their time to MAKE something BEAUTIFUL. I loved it.
The history. Different parts of the palace date back to the 1300's, 1500's etc. Our tour guide was spectacular. A great teacher and he really took his time to paint a rich picture of Venetian history. We saw state rooms, meeting halls, and even the prison.
Very interesting. We passed the bridge of sighs. We went into St. mark's basilica. Ancient building. Built in 1060 a.d. TEN SIXTY A.D.!!! Intricate REAL gold mosaics covered the arched and domed ceilings. There were even mosaics/tiling covering the entire floor. So many geometrical shapes, creating animals and patterns. We last visited the Murano glass factory. We saw a vase and a tiny horse be made out of glass. It was fascinating. The man had such skill as he molded and pulled at the glowing glass.
Did I say fascinating? The showroom made my jaw drop but everything was beyond expensive.
We took a second gondola ride, this time with 4 other strangers from our trip. It was fun but during the day the "streets" are crowded, the sun is hot and it's just a different experience. Our gondolier had a booming angry voice. And when we were caught in a real boat traffic jam, (1 narrow "street", 5 gondolas behind us, 2 in front, all waiting behind a motor boat trying to correct itself after having made a wrong turn)our gondoleir had something to say to the guys in front of us. I'm glad I didn't understand what it was. Adventure 7. Souveniers. Glass bracelets for those who helped us with our kids, a painting, 2 venetian masks, glass birds, necklaces for moms, whirley gigs for boys. lip gloss (because the bag with my makeup was still lost). 2 glass necklaces for me. 2 magnets. We wanted to buy a painting to take home with us. We met a man named Pichio? His paintings were GORGEOUS! He took his time to get a feel for the art we liked. He was very sweet. We eventually discovered he had L.D.S. family members (mormones as he said) he pulled out a pass-along card of Christ and some children. He was a neat man and gave us a 15 euro discout on our painting (in us dollars, that's like 20 bucks). I brought a Book of Mormon on the trip, I promised the girls in my ward that I'd give it to someone, and I was DETERMINED to give it to someone. You know, when you find something good you want to share it? Well I wanted to give my book to Pichio. When we got back to our room, I filled out a message, in english, to him and brought it with me on our return trip to venice, which is adventure #8.

Adventure 8. An unexpected trip back over to the fun. After the tour and souvenier purchasing day. . ., we well, I, was exhausted. WE got back to our room and I just LANDED on the bed. We found out that our luggage had in fact NOT been located and NOT been delivered. Let me refresh you, that means little to no makeup for me, no camera charger, no power converter, no jewlery, no laptop charger, no journal (hence my writing this using precious uncharged, unplugged laptop time), no hair accessories, no scriptures. The biggest emergency though was no camera charger. Hence no more pictures. (You'll notice that the pictures only cover the first part of this blog entry.) Alfonso got info from the concierge about where we could either buy a new camera or charger. And just minutes after landing on the bed, we discovered that in order to reach the shop by it's closing tmie 7:30 actually 19:30. We needed to book it over there PRONTO and we were off, jetting across the water on the hotel shuttle, running through the streets of St. Marcs. over bridges, through alleys, till we finally reached the photo store. . . @ 7:32. THE SHOP WAS CLOSED!!! Discouraged, we meandered around the streets till we found the Rialto bridge. We went to the top of the massive bridge to enjoy the view. Near the bridge we ate a delicious meal. Later we got some gelato and listened to some live musicians. I gave the Book of Mormon and note to a nearby vendor and friend of Pichio, who agreed to give it to him in the morning. When we got to the shuttle area, we discovered that the next shuttle wouldn't come for an hour. ayayay. We decided to try to walk to Zettara, the next shuttle pick up area in 20 minutes. It took over an hour to find our way. My dogs were barkin. My back was achin, but man, it was a beautiful place to get lost in. Some new friends through auto owners is lending us their camera. We talked briefly to our mom's on the phone and checked on the kids. I took a bubble bath and kept falling asleep in the tub. So so soo tired. But I eventually, safely, found my way to the bed and slept with visions of Venice dancing in my head.