Okay, so this is a LITTLE delayed. At least when I write things retrospectively it means I don’t blab on so much. If you breathe a word about me and blabbing and retrospect not making a difference, I will come and smack you down. Well, I might glare at you. Possibly even kick you in the shins with my boots.
So....where were we?? Venice I believe. Well, I probably should have written about it earlier, because I ended up getting sick and hence not seeing much else, not that it worried me too much, being my third visit.
We arrived and found our little B&B about a 15 minute walk from the station. It was pretty cute, albeit with rooms that really danced on the line of quaint and kitschy. And by danced I mean it did the hokey pokey. However, it was conveniently located and the owners were lovely, giving me yet another chance to practice my Italian. Forse devo scrivere questo in italiano...ma non penso che avete capito.
Anyway, we went for a walk around Venice for a couple of hours, buying a map from the information office and promptly stuffing it away and exploring Venice in the best possible way – just wandering around. I did show Tess St. Mark’s square and the Rialto Bridge, but for the most part we just mosied around and enjoyed the ambience. And the relative cool. We did find a wing–ding–a–ling lion that was pretty cool (see photos). We ended up having one of the best dinners that we’d had since been here, so good in fact that we had dinner at the same place on our third night there.
The second day I have nothing to report on because I spent all freaking day sick in bed. Tess did go to Murano and Burano of which I was a little jealous. The third day I spent rather slowly wandering around Venice, so I have not much to report apart from the fact that I found a park! In Venice!! Who woulda thunkit? It was so green and so....not what I think of when I think of Venice. It was kinda cool to see an area that I hadn’t.
So the next day we bundled up and head back to the most amazing B&B in Santa Maria degli Angeli (the town near Assisi), to see Lanfranco and Marcella again. As usual, we were greeted warmly and shown to our room (though this time it was the other side, which unfortunately for Tess lacked the bath that she was looking forward to).
We didn’t get up to much that night (well, Tess enjoyed a bottle of wine and we both enjoyed a lot of chocolate) because the next day we went to Perugia’s Eurochocolate festival. In hindsight feasting on chocolate the night before going to a chocolate festival is probably not the best idea I’ve ever had because by the time we got there I had lost all of my cravings for the stuff. Don’t worry, it didn’t stop me!
It was sensation overload – the dull roar of the crowd peppered with dancey music tracks; the bustle of the crowd as you try to very slowly make your way down the main street littered with chocolate stalls, selling everything from normal chocolate wares and various AMAZING flavours of hot chocolate, to chocolate popcorn, pizza and kebabs (the souvlaki kind, not shish kabob). That’s chocolate pizza and chocolate kebabs, just in case you were confused. If only I was hungry! L
Anyway – back to sensation overload: we’ve done sight, sound and touch. The main sense that I remember is smell – the amazing blanket smell of chocolate in the air. Mmmmm...it was fantastic! We didn’t satisfy our taste until the end – trying to buy chocolate at any stall was a little overwhelming – you had to fight your way through the crowds and then request in Italian and try to hear the response. Lots of pointing and smiling to be had!
After getting some chocolate (which didn’t taste very dissimilar to Lindt, I might add) we headed back to Assisi and went to bed ready for our trip back to Rome the next day. We farewelled Lanfranco and Marcella once again (they were just so wonderful!) and boarded the train for our last 24 hours or so in Italy.
This time we stayed near the Vatican as Tess was going to head to the Vatican museum in the morning. We were very pleasantly surprised with the room – it was quite large, containing a couch, a large round coffee table and even a chess board. We decided that given this we would spend our last night in....style? We went for a walk to the Pantheon and on our way back we grabbed a bottle of wine for Tess (I already had a bottle of wine that I could not open previously due to the lack of a bottle opener. Yes I googled it and saw that it was possible, but the methods were a little noisy for our previous accommodations!). Woohoo! A bottle of wine each and a chess game later and we were quite happy.
Unfortunately for Tess she had to get up very early to go to the Vatican. I had previously said that I would get up and go for a walk, but clearly I reneged on this idea and stayed in bed. And that’s pretty much it folks. We packed up, went for a quick walk, returned for our bags then made our way to the airport for our flights home. It was long and tedious, as all good flights are, with horrid turbulence just in case you wanted to sleep (which I was trying not to, arriving at 10:30 pm at night). I was thrilled that my theory of declaring at customs gets you through quicker was upheld as I got out a good 5 – 10 minutes before Tess. Thank you Genovese pesto. Mmmmmm....pesto.
And now I’m at home with my wonderful boy and my darling kitten, who is growing up so fast! She is still stunning, I believe! And now I get to return to work tomorrow, joy of infinite joys. So, until next time...which I am not sure when this will be as I have to save for a bloody wedding. Sigh.
Peace out!!
XX
