Day 49 - Venice, Italy

We started the day with a tour of St Mark’s Basilica (which we opted not to do the previous days because of long lines). A little history: There was upheaval in Egypt in the early 800s AD, so two Venetians traveled there and “rescued” St. Mark’s body from the Turks and brought it back to Venice, giving instant status to the secular state. They built a church over his bones and made him the patron saint of the city. His symbol, the winged lion, is seen everywhere in Venice.

The basilica is covered with tons of Byzantine mosaics. Back when many were illiterate, most of the bible could be taught by pointing to the mosaics on the church walls. Outside on the balcony, there is a famous treasure that the Venicians looted from Constantinople during the 4th crusade, four bronze horses. Also on the balcony, are great views of St. Mark’s Square.


After this, we did a Rick Steve’s “Rialto Walk” podcast, ending up on the picturesque Rialto bridge. Below is a view from the bridge.

We were very hungry at this point, and decided to try and have one last “authentic Italian” pizza lunch before leaving Italy. As a quick disclaimer, after three weeks in Italy, you become a pizza snob, so you want an authentic homemade, wood-oven, fresh San Marzano tomato, buffalo mozzarella pizza. We found a pizzeria that looked good (or so we thought) near Rialto. From our recent experience of eating at authentic Italian restaurants (plus a few guidebook warnings about tourist traps), there were a few red flags that we should have immediately recognized. First, the menu was in four different languages. Second, the menu had pictures of the food on it, which is a big no-no in Italy. Third, the entire staff, including the cooks, were Japanese (which we only really noticed after ordering as the waitress relayed our order to a cook in Japanese). Previously, we had never had to wait more than 10-15 minutes for our pizza (Italian wood-burning pizza ovens cook pizzas in no time). However, here we waited about 30 minutes, and when the food came, we knew why. We were served frozen pizzas that had just been thawed and heated up. I can’t explain in words our feelings of despair at this moment. We reluctantly choked down this rubber-like substance. As icing on the cake, when I asked for the bill in Italian, the Japanese waitress gave me a deer-in-headlights look (we are in the heart of Venice for crying out loud). We vowed never to make this same mistake again.

Next, we ventured to the Frari church. The church houses a few works from the greatest Venetian painter, Titian. Titian’s tomb also resides in the church. Also in the church are works from various other famous artists, such as Bellini and a Donatello statue of John the Baptist.

Following this, we visited the Accademia museum, which boasts the greatest collection of Venetian Renaissance art. We saw works by Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, Bellini, and Giorgione, to name a few.

This was our “romantic” dinner night. We started the evening off with a drink at Harry’s, which is a well-known bar where the rich and famous come for drinks. Harry’s is also the inventor of the “bellini” cocktail. Kim tried the bellini, but I got a gin and tonic. The bill: 40 euros. Well, we knew going in we were paying more for the atmosphere. . . at least they let us stay at our table a while.

We ended the night with a fantastic candlelight dinner on the canal in a less touristy area of town.