Day Six - Venezia or Bust
|
Ponte di Rialto
at Night |
Ponte
de Sospiri at Night
(Click to Enlarge) |
We were sad to leave the coast. A few more days would have been perfect,
but were on our way once again, taking the bus back to Sorrento, then
the train to Napoli. In Napoli, we had short wait for th next train,
so we grabbed a beer at a tabacchi store at the station and watched
Olympic
Table Tennis.
The trip from Napoli to Bologna was a long one. I managed to sleep
a good deal of the way, but even at that, it seemed to last forever.
Fai read every word of a People magazine three times.
Once we finally arrived in Bologna, we switched trains and a few hours
later, we chugged into Santa
Lucia Stazione. It's quite surreal when you walk out of the train
station and you're staring right at the Grand Canal.
Hotel Zecchini
was only a few short blocks from the train station, an excellent location
overall, as it would turn out. We checked in and then set out into the
night.
We were both quite hungry and Fai was determined to get to a place
where she had been with Monica and Elena that served a particluar pesto
dish. We walked along the canal through the sestieris
of Cannaregio,
Castello,
and into San
Marco, where walked upon the Ponte
di Rialto (Rialto Bridge). For nearly 300 years, the only way to
cross the Grand Canal by foot was the Rialto.
Continuing south, we followed the many signs that point toward Piazza
San Marco. Just before the piazza, we found the Ponte
de Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs). The story is Ponte se Sospiri earned
its name by the sighs of prisoners seeing Venezia for the last time
as the crossed over to their cells.
It took some seraching, but we finally found the ristorante and Fai
enjoyed her pesto while I ate some pasta with tuna, and of course, the
obligatory Nasto Azzurro, which was quickly becoming one of my favorite
beers.
After dinner, we eneterd the piazza and saw the Basilica
of San Marco and Doge's
Palace. We enjoyed the scene atmosphere for a little while before
heading back to the hotel on a vaporetto
(water bus).