Our first stop is THE HOUSE OF GOLD on the Grand Canal. The local name is Ca' d'Oro. Here is an interesting tidbit about the naming convention in Venice. It seems that only ONE place could be called a palace and that was the Doges Palace. So all of the other mansions could only be called "Ca'". So around the city you will find "Ca' this" and "Ca' that" but no other place is a "palace".
We consider ANY mansion on the Grand Canal a "palace" and this one was 3 or 4 stories tall with lovely views from terraces on a number of the floors that could look up and down the canal.
Not a "grand" staircase but this one was beautifully carved and I hope the picture shows it.
Unfortunately this "restored" mansion was mostly updated to display museum art work so a lot of the original house architecture wasn't visable on the inside.
Next stop - McDonald's and WIFI. When you've been without wifi for even a few days getting connected is nice. You get to catch up on Facebook and email and to let our friends and family know we are still thinking about them between the pizza, the boat rides, the great vistas, and Venice.
We had a real American hamburger once again. Sometimes you just need comfort food. Notice the thick slice of mozzarella cheese? Mmmm. Finally, something the Italians improved upon.
This street is a main thoroughfare between the train station and Rialto Bridge so we shopped a little bit then got on our next vaporetto to Ca' Rezzonico, a museum dedicated to 18th Century Venice. It was closed. Our notes told us this but for some reason we forgot to read them. We hopped on the next boat 2 minutes later and visited the Gallerie Dell'Accademia instead, just a few stops away.
This place was gorgeous inside with intricate gold ceilings
...complicated marble floors
...crown molding to drive a carpenter crazy
...wall sized frescoes
...and a suspended spiral staircase of marble!
This is how good a restored ceiling can look to bring the old world workings to new eyes.
From here we headed away from the crowds and we walked toward the larger canal around the island. It was a sunny day and we found a quick dinner and ate on the steps of a church overlooking the water - ah, Venice.
It is difficult to explain what we did next via the vaporetto but we boarded one and went past the cruise ships, past the airport and into the train station (which ends on the Grand Canal) and stayed on until we got to the Rialto Bridge.
We walked around a bit more sizing up a Gondolier who could take us for a nice romantic ride. We found one we liked a while later and he took us for a ride on one of the inner canals, out to the Grand Canal and back to our starting spot. We pulled alongside another couple in another gondola and I asked them if they would like me to take their picture and they reciprocated and this is the shot we got.
Wandered home the long way and after arriving in out hotel it was decided we really needed to do some information gathering about laundry. So we went all the way to the laundrymat (it was a 1/2 mile away) to learn how to use it and what I would need tomorrow morning in the way of money (contact the bank and take out a loan) to get our two loads done. Mission accomplished and we headed home once again.
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