Our
first THREE days in Italy
Love hit HARD for both of us
when we arrived in the city of Venice (7 hours late, due to a
cancelled flight). This is a place that pictures, paintings nor
movies do justice. Very close mind you, they taunt you with its
beauty, romance and sheer history and mystery, but until you actually
step onto the narrow crooked brick 'streets' and cross the hundreds
of bridges you will never feel what we felt.
The first night, we arrived
at 7:30 local time which was then 28 hours from when we initially
left Victoria. We checked into our cute B&B and I promptly got in
my first workout out front in the courtyard of the nearby cafe's and
bakeries. A few people walked by, a few locals opened their second
and third story windows to chat with those walking by, but nobody
seemed to look twice at the crazy Canadians filming a workout.
*This WOD will soon be posted
to www.bodyripped.net*
From here we headed out to
find some dinner. We took about ten steps from our front door,
rounded a corner and found a quaint canal front restaurant where we
shared a bread, Kevin a cold beer and I a glass of the house white.
This
was what we were waiting for..... ITALY, we love you
We spent the next few hours
wandering the beautiful ess curves and L shaped alley ways through
Venice, stopping at random cafe's for the odd espresso on the go.
Shoppers have late night
access to some stores, but there doesn't seem to be a steady 'close'
time amongst the city. And so we shopped....
When we finally made our way
back to the room, Kevin was asleep before his head even hit the
pillow, and I for some reason stayed awake for what felt like all
night.
I must have been over tired?
I nodded off once in a while,
to then re awake and I couldn't stop myself from fantasizing of what
USED to be.
What was our little B&B hundreds of years ago
when the city was young? Was there ghosts sleeping with us??
Likely thought..... Thus...
Kyla couldn't sleep ~
We had all the best
intentions of waking up on our 'first day' to another workout at 8
am, and head out for a traditional breakfast... Or if I could help
it, Oatmeal and fruit..... I'll let you assume the answer to that!
We slept WAY in and awoke at
ten to eleven, in a sort of panic. Jumped out of bed, brushed our
teeth, washed faces, threw clothes on and headed out ......in the
rain. Thankfully I had brought my LULU LEMON rain coat and Kev had an
umbrella:)
We found a sweet little spot
for breakfast while the rain slowed down and of course both enjoyed
another espresso.
We continued where we left
off the night before with just wandering the streets hand in hand
with nothing but joy and no time to fight with. No cell phones, no
plans, no stress.
We popped into a shop and
within 2 minutes the light rain had turned to HAIL!
Yes HAIL!! lol.... We joined
with the crowd outside who promptly huddled under an onning of a
nearby store for the few moments that the hail lasted and we were on
our way again.....
We found our way to San
Marco Square, by complete accident, but celebrated with a high five
and a completely acceptable PDA smooch, THIS was our original goal...
San Marco Square.
We stood in the centre of the
GIANT square and looked up... way up... to the tip of the famous
Tower... ( You'd think I'd know the name hahahah. We're driving... at
150 km/hr I'll have you know....I'll find it later)
We jumped in line for the
elevator, hoping it was stairs actually... THAT would have been the
WOD, but no such luck, and onto the elevator.
60 meters up to the top
and to a view that took your breath away.
We hopped a water bus and
cruised around the canal, finding little nooks and crannies that
would likely go unseen if you remained on land.
After what seemed like a full
day of walking and sightseeing, we headed home, where I snuck in a
workout ( un filmed) and Kev read up on the Lonely Planet Italy.
Quick shower/ bath and we were heading back out to be romanced by the
city over dinner.
When I say 'shower/bath I am
referring to the bizarre set up we had in our B&B. Now Im sure
they are very common in Europe, but for us North Americans, we are
used to a shower OR a bath.... there is a tub here, with a removable
shower head, sitting next to the taps, so to shower, you must SIT in
the tub and shower yourself with the shower head.
Anyway, back to dinner....We
have officially fallen into European time, and its nearing 6 pm so we
stop for a glass of wine and snack, dinner can wait... we have all
night.
The Lonely Planet had marked
a restaurant near the Rialto district as THEIR pick, “I Rusteghi”.
This was reason enough for us to begin a mad hunt for the EXTREMELY
WELL HIDDEN hidden gem, where the owner and Somalia Giovanni will
look you up and down and hand pick your wine while you nibble on the
tapas, some of the best of the city so says the book.
Well we found it, with NO
help from local businesses, hahah it was like the address didn’t
exist. I Rusteghi was down some dark back alley ways and around a
corner and through a weird low ceiling hallway type alley. All of a
sudden the room opened up to a roofless open courtyard type area with
a tiny bar that sat perhaps 8 people tightly.
Well Giovanni offered his
choice in wine, and YES it was delicious, but there were no tapas or
food to be seen, and so we enjoyed our wine and headed back out
looking for our dinner.
While we were on out water
bus trip today we had passed this incredibly quaint on the water
under the Rialto bridge restaurant that looked so perfect I could
squeeze it.
Well we somehow walked right
to it and promptly were seated within a foot of the water with what
was our best meal yet.
We shared the Seafood
Risotto and the house wine... Ok ok and Tirimasu for our first treat!
We left dinner about an hour
and a half later, glowing and happy, again with no place to go, no
time restraint, and madly in love with the city of Venice.
We awoke the next day at a
decent hour of 8:45 and promptly headed out for a run. Clearly Monday
mornings are busier than Sundays, which allowed us to master our
weaving manoeuvres. Forty minutes later we arrive back home and I
challenged Kev to a Push up Tabata workout. I was dying, He claims he
was fine...whatever! Tabata kicks anyones ass, He must have been
cheating;)
From here we got ready for
the day and did what we've learned to do best.....Stroll and enjoy
doing not much.
We hopped the water bus again
and made out way around all the islands, stopping only at Murano,
where we had been told is fabulous. Glass blowing and cafe's to keep
you busy all day. Well we took a left when we hopped off the boat and
the excitement was do our dismay to the right. Oops.
We managed to get lost in the
industrial island before getting bummed and jumping on the bus back.
It was then that we say the island how it SHOULD be seen, but we were
already on our way home...... Next time.
We finished the day with a
quiet dinner at a Ma and Pa type place, where I managed to find a
delicious vegetable soup and Kevin an equally tasty chicken over
roasted potato. In bed by 10 for a long day ahead.....
Today we are driving.
We have had a slightly less
romantic start to the day.....
POURING with rain, my Toms
shoes are puddles, literally puddles and Kevin’s new Pumas are much
the same.
The umbrella has been wind
blown and broken in half, the car rental needs a printed off voucher.
This was news to us.
Our pick up time for the
rental was 10 am, it is now 9:30, we're early, it's safe this way!!
No printer at the rental
office, and barely any english and so we head back out into the rain
in the direction we THINK He's sent us in in search for a
printer or internet cafe of sort.
We pound through the
downpour, with no umbrella and pools in our shoes to the train
station down the canal, NO PRINTER and NO HELP.
I sit my bitter but down in
the station while kevin braves the rain in search of a printer in a
city where technology is the last thing on anyones mind.
No luck here, and our only
thought now is to try our B&B front desk for their printer.
CLOSED until 11:00, its now
10:15 and we are half an hour into the search and late for our pick
up.
We find a BestWestern and
miraculously they have a free computer and printer (which Im sure was
for those staying at the hotel, but nobody asked)
When we got there there was a
young couple sitting on the stool taking what at that moment seemed
like FOR EVERRRRRRRRR ughhhhhhhhh and 2 couples later and a WHOLE lot
of deep breathing from me, it was our turn.
It took all of 45 seconds and
we were printed off and on our way, back to the rental office.
We got squared away and into
our adorable FiAT an hour late but alas we were DRY. It's 6 hours
later and my Toms are still wet!
Anyone who knows me well, and
I am thinking of a small handful of you, KNOW how miserable I was
during this event and how poor Kevin was obviously taking the brunt
of it... OF COURSE it was his fault...lol
You'd think that once we
were in a dry safe vehicle all would be well, WELLLLL have any of
you tried driving in ITALY?
I'll leave it at that... it's
taken me a few hours to cool down and that leaves us to now.
We just left Verona....on
our way to Moneterosso in the Cinque terre.. WOW, talk about historic
beauty Verona is. There are so many stories to go with this city but
our hour visit just left us wanting more.....
I'm ok with that.
