Day #21
Breakfast
Breakfast was a cereals with some cold ham and cheese (the guide says that breakfast isn't a big event for Italians and to not expect a hot breakfast). After all the hot breakfasts, I enjoyed something simple anyway.
Train
After breakfast we walked down to the Mestre train station (We are staying on the Venice Mainland in a suburb called Mestra). Amy had bought a 48 hour public transport pass so we were able to get on the train free. Amy knew that we had to go to "Venezia St Lucia" which was venice island train station. There was an electronic train board telling the train times and their platforms, so getting there was pretty easy. The train went off the mainland and across the sea towards the islands. Finally we arrive at the station (the train terminates there as well, making it twice as easy) after about 10 minutes.
Venice Island
Venice Island has a thing the runs around it called the grand canal (It looks like a river that runs around the island - for you WoW crackers it looks like the canal in Undercity - only much bigger, and bluer ;) ). The train station is just outside the grand canal. The area was packed with tourists. There were boats going up and down the canal in droves. I was not keen to get a boat (or a gondola - I have heard about the cost being prohibitive - 60 EU [AUD$80] per ride) so we decide to walk through Venice island. We cross over a bridge that leads to the "inner" circle of Venice Island. The town is very picturesque (I know I have over used this word - I just cant think of a better description). It has beautiful old buildings and narrow stone streets. One tragedy is that the buildings have graffiti all over them. What person in their right mind would graffiti this?
Pizza
It is lunch time, so we decide to stop for lunch - and our first pizza in Italy. We order the Sicilian Pizza (for Sam and Mary - yeh, I know we ordered it in Venice so it doesn’t count ;) and it is pretty good (it is what I expected from what I have heard about Italian pizzas). It was tomato and cheese with some whole olives on top. I am starting to say Bonjourno(sp), Gratzi(sp), and Arrividerchi(sp) more often as I start to gain confidence. As we are eating our pizza, some accordian player and singer come up and start playing music at us. After they finish he says something that I couldn’t understand, but his holding out of a cup (with the shaking gesture) is unmistakable. I give him 1 EU (probably too much but I am learning) and he leaves.
Mask shop
After this we arrive at a nice mask shop. I look up the phrase book for Post Office and it says Offeechio(phon.) Postalee(phon.) which when I say this to the lady she says back "Post Office" (It worked!! ;) and pointed in the direction. We buy some masks off her and then leave.
Guild Hall (Scuola Grande Di San Giovanni Evangelista)
We followed the map of the island (which I have the hang of now) to a "Point of interest" (I have trouble reading the names, both because of the language and my long sightedness :( ). This POI is a old (pre 1369) guild hall (multiple trades) was also a place for the poor (in many ways it was similar to the guild hall in York - with the conference hall upstairs and a poor area downstairs - but was much more lavish and much bigger). It was also a place where people without family who did not want to commit to a religious order could go for support and companionship. It was very beautiful with marble stairs and floors, great stone walls, numerous works of art, and a piece of the actual cross that Jesus died on. One nasty painting was of St John being boiled in oil (at the order of the Emperor [cant remember his name]).
Basilica Santa Maria Gloriosa Di Frari
After the guild hall we went to a church (more like a cathedral) [name above - I am not writing that again ;) ] and went inside. It was huge (and very pretty of course ;). It had giant statues on the walls, and mausoleums too. There was mausoleum that had negroes holding the ceiling up, and some undead skeletons looking over them (they were described as "black demons" but it was obvious to me that they were negro slaves). There were prayer areas and confessional boxes. There was statues of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist with pews so that you could pray. The floor had tombs under it and it felt disconcerting to walk over them (maybe that is the old catholic boy coming out in me ;).
Spagetti Bolognaise
After the cathedral we needed to visit the Toilette (the guide calls them "Servici" but the toilet door had Toilette written on it - so meh), so Amy and I stopped off at a Ta verna. The guy that served at the bar barely spoke English so I was getting to have more fun with the language barrier (no kidding, I really enjoy it). I am using the old text-based adventure games algorithm where it could only parse 2 word sentences to form my sentences. 2-word sentences seem to have the best hit rate. I manage to ask for "duo aqua minerale", "une gas une no gas" which has the desired result (1 still mineral water, 1 sparkling water". I also ask for "spaghetti bolognaise" (Food is easy - just order pizza or spaghetti and the words are all the same). He then said "blah blah blah lasagna blah blah". I said "si". I think in the end he was asking me the type of pasta I wanted, because when I got my spagetti bolognaise it was with square pieces rather than long "noodles".
Icecream shop
After walking around a bit more Amy has decided to visit every toilet on venice Island, so we stopped at an ice-cream shop. Me, having too much guilt about using a toilet without buying something, went to a chest freezer, grabbed a dessert, and went to the counter to pay for it. The owner came back in (after serving someone outside) and started explaining something to me. With a lot of hand motioning (Italians are good for this ;) I realized that he meant that I had to order it as a "sit down" meal. I ordered the chocolate dessert plus 2 cappucinos (always a safe drink in italy ;). At the end I asked him "il corno par favoire" (which means the bill please). He gave me the bill and I said "gratzi-eah"(phon.), He smirked a lot and chuckled a bit (which I assumed was his amusement at me trying to speak italian - I don’t mind, it is good to be on the foreign side for something different + I am happy if they at least understand what I am saying even if I sound silly). After that I bid him "Arrividerchi" and then leave.
Internet Café
There are tnnnes of Internet cafes on Venice Island and we decide to stop in at one and upload my blog + check email (Mestre seems a bit light on the ground for facilities so we get in while the going is good). We get 2 computers, and they are in italian ;). The dialog boxes have "Ok" and "Annulla" (Try changing your windows to italian just for the fun of it - Thanks Anthony ;) It became apparent to me that I couldn’t remember all the shutdown options when I came to logout and the lady shut it down for me.
Train
Finally at about 4:30pm we headed back for the train. Getting a ticket was a somewhat confusing process. Because Mestre is not a terminating station there is no "Mestre Train", so we have to get help to find out what it is. When we arrive at the help desk, the guy points out that our tickets don’t work on trains (we were told when we bought the 25 EU 48 hour ticket that it worked on ALL public transport - ok, contextual use of the word ALL). I go to an electronic ticket machine (which has an english mode) but cant find Mestre Station. We eventually discover it is called "Venezia Mestre" (This station actually services areas all over Italy (up to Roma I think), so it was like saying "Brisbane Southbank". This silly machine wont give us a ticket so we go to a ticket window. I get the tickets but forget to find out which platform (doh! And there is a big queue too). Amy (the genius) finds a timetable on one of the walls to "Udine" that has "Mestre" on it. Once we know the terminating station we are home and hosed, because each platform has the terminating station written on the electronic board.
Mestre is the first stop on the line (or so we thought) and we are discussing it while an Italian couple look on. At the stop we jump off and they call to us "No Mestre!", so we jump back on saying "Gratzi, Gratzi". At the next stop, we say "Mestre?" and they say "si". We say "Gratzi" and then get off (they get off too, we say "Gratzi" again - I say to Amy "lets hang back so we don’t have to keep saying "Gratzi".
There are 2 signs "Uscita Lato Margharita" and "Uscita Lato Mestre". I take us out the wrong way we turn around and leave the right way. We then head back to the hotel.
Sleep
The food in Italy is wonderful. Full of flavour, and a much welcome change after the British food (sorry guys, its true - British food is not that good).
We watch (for the 2nd night running) an episode of Star Trek in Italian. I think these episodes are even more interesting in Italian than they are in English ;)
