Venice - Day 2 - The Most Expensive Day yet

We woke the Brennans from their jet-lagged sleep at 11 am, and Meg, Rachel, and I went out to gather ingredients from local vendors to recreate our delicious breakfast from yesterday of bread, fruit, yogurt, and cheese.  We walked to the train station and caught the 2:00 train to Venice (which is only 14 euro per family round trip) and the public water boat to St. Mark's Square (which is a steep 21 euro per family one way!).   
We planned to lunch in St. Mark's Square - knowing full well we were making a rookie tourist mistake in doing so, but feeling like we were wise to sit in the smaller Piazzetta di San Marco where only a three-piece orchestra was playing while we ate a small snack of sandwiches and little pizzas.  We sat for a very long time (Laura and I chatting and people watching, the girls playing rummy) and just soaked it all in.  With our lunch we ordered three bottles of water - the one thing not listed by price on the menu - and were shocked when the bill came to see each one was 8,80 euro!  Over $10 per bottle, and not  particularly large bottles!  Hello Venice.

After recovering (barely) from that shock, we wandered into the adjacent Piazza di San Marco, where we were approached by an Asian tourist for a picture.  We thought he wanted us to take a picture of him and his friend, but turns out he wanted to take a picture of himself with our older girls (none of the rest of us, though you know I thought he might have wanted to include me too - Julia's older sister :-)).  Who knows where the picture will end up or what story will accompany it, but I think the girls were flattered on top of embarrassed.  Hello Teenagers.  

The Correr Museum on the south side of the square had a Gustav Klimt exhibit we decided to see and paying for those tickets is when we actually ran out of money.  64 euro for the group.  

After visiting a bancomat, we then made our way over to the north west edge of the square and to accomplish what we had come to Venice to do today - a gondola ride.  We hopped on Pierre's boat and he took us around the side rivers and out onto the Grand Canal.  It was interesting talking to him and finding out more about life in Venice, where he has lived for 27 years.  Another 80 euros.

Time to head back to the train station.  We walked as far as the Rialto Bridge altogehter, but Laura - who has back surgery scheduled for September and is a total trooper walking, though she is in constant pain - opted to take the public boat back to train station.  We gave the girls the choice of riding with her or walking with me, because I was done spending euros in Venice.  All of the girls came with me and we raced through the streets of Venice trying to beat the boat back.  That is the best walk because it takes you away from so many tourists and let's you see some real living.  We didn't beat the boat but came pretty close!  

We caught a fast train home, met some really interesting girls just graduated from high school who live in Vienna but spent 4 days on their own in Venice.   We realized how soon that is in our lives and yet so far from what our girls will be doing to celebrate graduation!

Jim met us at the train station and was able to drive Laura and the girls home.  The girls were anxious to stay in for dinner, so they went to vending machine on our street and bought a box of pasta for 1,20 euro and made a sauce from butter and parmesan cheese.  The evening didn't end there for the adults though - Jim and Laura came and met me on my walk home and we meandered around checking out several possibilities for a beautiful dinner al fresco.  It seemed each alley we turned down offered another choice, and we finally settled on the perfect one - Trattoria Toni del Spin - a typical sort of tavern with delicious food - we ordered gazpacho, pasta with pesto and tomatoes, grilled turbo, gnoochi in a gorganzola sauce, steak with fresh vegetables, marscapone dessert, prosecco, and a bottle of water - and got all of that for around 100 euro (about what we paid for our snacks in Venice).  Hello Treviso!