grazie - thank you (italian)

dan analyses his gelato choices while the seasoned veteran orders a little of everything.

i'm loving the comments people! keep it up! by the way, i'm sorry that i didn't include this link earlier, becca, it could have saved you time looking up perfect strangers. our waiter really did look like balki! good eye, dan!

day 3: hail? this was NOT in the forecast!

day three started in florence and ended up back in venice. we had a few things left on our checklist so we only slept in a little.

if you have read brian's blog you'll know that our breakfast on this day was pretty much my version of hell. we breeze into a lovely little pasticceria to get a quick glutenful bite and a cappucino. we have the place to ourselves for about 10 seconds when a wave of noisy italian charge into the shop. dan and i try to escape but the server won't let us into the seating area since we already have our pastries. we are left to eat standing at any tiny space of counter we can fight our way into. meena is pushing through the crowd bravely attempting to order and receive 4 coffees and pay for it all. we are being bumped and shoved and are left standing with our drinks in one hand and our pastries in another wondering how we are supposed to eat and drink when we can't even breathe. at least that's how it felt to me. we each do what we have to in order to finish breakfast and escape the place unscathed.

a claustrophobia inducing breakfast leads us to seek out places less lively. we head for the church with the tombs. we see a plaque for da vinci (don't think it was an actual resting place) and the tombs of galileo, machiavelli, michelangelo, and others. there's a museum with sketches of frescoes and a mini santa croce church.

now that we've crossed santa croce off our list we can head for - can you guess? - gelato. after we've had our gelato fix we move on to the mercato nuevo, near the major shopping area and the porta rossa (there's that o mio babbino caro again). i want a pashmina. the cashmere ones are made here and only cost 10 euro. i bring dan in for support and start to discuss price with a woman at a stall. i'm oohing and ahhing over the silk stuff now, more expensive of course, and dan is getting angry. finally, he negotiates a price for me and i walk away with 2 silk scarves for not much of a deal since i was so "emotive". did i mention that haggling, confrontation of any kind really, is my other hell?

so then we eat! it's a gorgeous day, the sun is shining. we sit outside, albeit under an awning with plastic tent sides. close enough. we soak in the sun all through lunch and then it starts to rain. oh well, we have to catch a train anyway. so we start to walk. it rains harder. we run from over hang to awning. it rains harder. we seek cover in a doorway. it starts to hail! we can't wait it out so we run, "ouch! ouch! ouch!" to the hotel. i love it. it makes me miss colorado. dan and i get our stuff, and call a taxi. now it clears up and is beautiful for our train trip to venice. grazie, brian and meena, for a fun (and educational) time in bella firenze!!

it's still beautiful when we arrive in venice. we catch a vaporetto (a water bus) to the accademia stop and check into our hotel - the hotel ca' paisano. it's awesome! it's a design hotel. as dan said "it out W's the W." we settle in, wander the streets of venice, and eat at a so-so little trattoria. we end our night in polar opposite to the start at centrale - a sleek dark bar with modern murano glass chandelier, Nobu-esque bamboo croppings, black leather, dark wood, and Morimoto style color-changing lighted bar. the nearest people are two tables away and i can barely see or hear them. my sidecar is sweet, and the house music is lulling me to sleep.

stay tuned for day 4 when dan and i reluctantly decide that we're not going to become art collectors - just yet.