| Erin's Venice Journal #6 4-6-02 Saturday was our last day in Venice. For the morning, we'd planned to get up early and head over to the open air market we'd heard about, with a quick stop off at the post office to mail some unneeded stuff home. We'd been smart enough (we thought) to notice a box of empty wine bottles the night before which we could use for the mailing purpose (after getting rid of the bottles, of course!), so we thought it'd be easy. Nope. Our 'quick trip to the post office' turned into an exasperating lesson in Italian government work. Upon arriving at the main post office near the Rialto bridge, we found a line that looked like it was for mailing and got in. A young American girl was ahead of us with a PosteItalian box in hand, so we started asking if she'd mailed things from there before, which she hadn't. She and her friend had gotten there and been told to buy these boxes to ship with, and had to get out of line to pack them. Now they were back in line to pay and put postage on...well as our friend got to the window, the postal lady yelled out at us that our box would have to be wrapped in brown paper because it wasn't one of the postal service products. We looked around but found no place to buy this in the postal office, and when we went outside and asked a passing mail deliverer, she said the local shop was closed, but we could get the paper 4 districts away! The crowds were horrendous and our morning slipping away, so we decided we'd buy the post office's box and repack our things. We went back in and found our friend still waiting at the window for her package to be processed - she was looking plenty frustrated with the slow service, too! After determining that the box would be purchased at the same window, we got back in line to buy one. After noticing us back in line and somewhat understanding our dilemna, the postal worker we'd originally heard from told us we could ship our stuff in the current box after all! So after all this running around and fretting, we were ok to use our box! That was a relief, but it still took almost 45 minutes of writing the address, waiting, waiting, and waiting some more for the slow worker to get our box processed and accept payment. What a mess! I will forever have more patience with our postal service back home now! After the post office mess, we headed across the Rialto bridge to the open air market, and got some great photos of all the produce, flowers, and fresh fish they were selling. Some looked plenty strange! Live eels, octopus with their ink all over the ice, and some fish I couldn't even name were going like hotcakes! It was great - everything was so fresh it made us want to learn to cook so we could better appreciate it all! The afternoon was spent in wandering through the Museo Correr back at San Marco Square, where we saw everything from books from the 14th century to a 13th century wooden church door to wooden models of palazzos of the noble families of Venice. It tired us out, and we were just in the right mood to take our required gondola ride. You can't go to Venice and not experience it! Overall, we weren't all that impressed with the tour for the price...but it was still a good thing to have done, in my opinion! Dinner our last night in Venezia was Cinese - Chinese! It was very good, and a nice change from the pasta & pizza we'd been enjoying since arriving in Italy. A couple of dishes were made with way more vinegar than the restaurants back home, but most were delicious. Sunday we headed for Bologna with a sad farewell to beautiful Venice! |
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| The Gallerie dell' Accademia, as seen from the ferry Below, another pigeon odyssey in San Marco Square |
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