Italy, Pt. III

I'm still trying to decide what my favorite portion of the trip was.  I really think I'm going to say it was Venice but I'll probably back peddle on that and say it was Rome or Cinque Terre or Tuscany.  But I think it was the feeling of Venice and the things we did that made it my favorite.

After we left the Cinque Terre, we drove to Venice which made for yet another long day.  But it was fun driving on the Autostrada and seeing Italy from a different point of view. We were even able to stop outside of Parma and pick up some appropriate cheese.  Once we arrived to Venice, we boarded the ferry and headed to the Rialto where our hotel was awaiting us.  After being in the Cinque Terre, I was ready for the Italy I remembered.  Don't get me wrong - the Cinque Terre was everything I had hoped it would be and more, I truly loved it.  But I wanted to show Dave the reason I wanted to bring him to Italy in the first place. 

We arrived and freshened up/took a power nap and then made our way out to the maze of alleyways.  Needless to say, we were both enamored.  There's just something about Venice that screams romance, we couldn't get enough of it.  I know it's super touristy but Piazza San Marco really took our breath away - and I've even been there before.  But you can't help but fall in love with it when a) you're there on your honeymoon, b) you're being serenaded by not just one but at least 4 sextets playing Sinatra and Vivaldi, etc. and c) there is so much astounding architecture and d) all those pigeons, they're gross and don't give a damn about you but there's something slightly appealing about them in Venice (no where else though, esp. not here in Chicago). 

We walked around for hours upon hours.  We ate delicious food and drank delicious wine and grappa and limoncello.  We had more gelato and loved every slurp of it. 

The next day, we ventured off to Teatro La Fenice and bought the remaining tickets to the matinee perforance of Verdi's La Traviata.  I'm so happy that he was OK with splurging on this (the remaining seats were in the royal box seat section) because as some of my friends know, going to the opera in Italy is on my list of things to do before I kick the bucket.  It was so incredibly amazing that I don't even know how to describe it.  I was brought to tears when it began.  Everything on the stage was so lovely and vivid, and Violetta had the most beautiful voice.  Alfredo was incredibly handsome and even though the story was in Italian and the subtitles were too, we still understood most of the story (there were a few things that made us go, OH, so THAT'S what she/he was doing) and appreciated it entirely.  This was definitely the highlight of our entire trip in my opinion.  Thank you honey for treating me to one of the most amazing experiences in my life.

After the opera, we had some vino and strolled over to the other parts of town where we had not set foot.  The streets were a little wider and less crowded and we ate some food at a jazz house and strolled aimlessly through the wonder of Venizia until the late hours.

Even though we were only there for two nights, it was the perfect stay.  I think having had more time there might have been too much, although it would have been fun to check out the Guggenheim museum there.  We were able to just stroll in and out of places at our leisure.  There was a really awesome book store we wandered into that had some really amazing vintage books on art and architecture that we debated over buying, even if they were in Italian.  Aw, I'm feeling nostalgic now...