Our last full day in Italy was a little deja vu.
We got up at 11:00am having slept in. After a small breakfast, I took a shower, checked my email and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. Today our plan was to go back to Venice, but at a more relaxed pace. I had gotten a good feel of the city the day before, but still wanted to see some the museums.
Lunch with Ettore and his family was fantastic. His mom had made homemade tortelliniswhich were really incredible. I ate them very quickly with some shredded cheese over the top. We kind of ate and ran as we left the house for the train station as soon as we had finished eating. We quickly caught the train and were back on our way to Venice.
At this point in our travels we were more or less pros of the Italian train system and we stepped out into Venice knowing where we were. It was probably, weather wise, Venice at is worse. Dark, grey and freezing with a windchill factor that made it even colder. We had forgotten the map, but more or less remembered where things were. We wanted to see the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Galleria Accademica. We began walking in the direction of Piazza San Marco. Unlike yesterday when there had been hundreds of tourists, the alley and canals were practically deserted. It was a cool experience to walk with almost a sense of silence as the city rested on a cold Sunday.
We were actually quite lost, especially when we found ourselves back in Piazza San Marco. We found a tourist office and got a very helpful answer from a lady who spoke French, English, and Italian fluently as she had helped us and 2 other groups of tourists from Italy and France. She showed us were we could walk or where where we could take a 50 cent Gondola ride. We found the "traghetto" gondola crossing point rather quickly and paid 50 cents to cross the Grand Canal. The gondola wasn't fancy and the trip was literally 20 meters, but I was very happy to say that I had ridden in a gondola.
We bought our tickets for the Peggy Guggenheim collection. Modern art is always hit or miss for me, but there were some great works by Picasso, Chagall, and Dalí. I was almost more intrigued by the view from the windows, and the gallery itself, right on the Grand Canal.
For the sake of pure image, I can say that I sat on the couch in the Peggy Guggenheim collection pondering a Jackson Pollack while gondola's drifted lazily by on the opposite side of the window pane. As it turned out, Guggenheim was one of Pollack's first dealers. Before leaving, Blake and I went out on the balcony over looking the Grand Canal.
We continued our museum tours with a visit to the Galleria Accademica. I received a significant student discount because "I was an art student studying film." Poli Sci didn't cut it. The Galleria focused on Venetian Art through the centuries. Very nice. I especially liked the painting of the last supper that the Inquisition had found offensive because there were "drawfs and drunkards." Another one of Venice itself, with gondolas, semi-pirate dress, and roman ruins summed up the feelings that I had for the city. After the gallery, we weren't sure of any set plan. It was dark and everything was closed. I wanted one more gelato before leaving Italy so we walked back to Piazza San Marco.
Crossing Ponte di Rialto and taking some very narrow alleys we made it back to the train station. We bought our tickets and walked in the opposite direction of the train station along brightly lit streets. Saying goodbye to Venice, we boarded the late, Sunday night train.
Ettore was waiting for us when we arrived at the station. We had dinner back at his home with his parents. I told them about my encounter with Claudia Cardinale and how she had signed her autograph on my chess at the Gene Autry Museum Gala for Sergio Leone.
That night, we went to a nice jazz bar to watch some of Ettore's friends from the music university do a 2 hour long jam session. We stayed until 1:30am and came back home to go to sleep. Our train back to Milan was at 11:35am so we had time to sleep in.
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