Venetian Birthday

Julia is 14!!!!

After spending a very quiet Saturday around Treviso – Laura wanting a final day in town,  the girls wanting lots of time on the secret project, me not feeling great and happy to dawdle, and Jim probably really wanting to go somewhere since he doesn’t get much time off work but being a good sport about it anyway – we had an action-packed Sunday to celebrate Julia’s 14th birthday.  

As is our birthday tradition, we woke Julia up Sunday morning with breakfast of sweet treats  and presents (most of which she selected on our travels so far – a calendar from the Uffizi, and a wallet, scarf and necklace from the Florence Market,  and a paint brush holder I found in an art store in Treviso).  She also got a bag full of different shaped licorice Rachel has enjoyed purchasing at every candy store she has seen and a special jar of pesto Laura bought at her favorite find in Treviso, a specialty food shop where everything is handmade by the lady who works there.  

We got everyone out of the house by 10 (a pretty big accomplishment) to get on the 10:30 train to Venice.  We were informed that there was a train strike that day until 9:00 pm – they have very respectful strikes with start and end times – but the 10:30 train was still running to Venice.  We thought "it can’t be that hard to get home – if we can get to Venice there must be some train service coming out of Venice as well."  So, we pushed forward with our plans.  We took the vaporetto straight from the Venice train station to the island of Murano, famous for the Venetian glassware.  I absolutely love Venetian glass and it was fun to go to the island it all comes from. We watched a demonstration of the glass blowing where “the master” as he was referred to (and it was quickly easy to see why) created a vase and a horse out of glass in a matter of minutes.  We bought a few things from the showroom there but should have known that was not the best place for a deal.  We got a recommendation for lunch and took at least one wrong turn trying to find it, taking us through the quiet, winding residential streets of the island until we came upon an old man out for a walk who walked us all the way back to the beautiful main street along a canal, lined with restaurants and shops filled with authentic glass of Murano.  

Julia chose a lunch spot and we poked in lots of stores before taking another water bus back to Venice, 20 minute walk to the Rialto Bridge, boat to the Accademia bridge stop, and walked another 5 minutes to the Peggy Guggenheim museum...another of Julia’s choices for how to spend her birthday. 

We spent just over an hour there looking at the modern art that Peggy Guggenheim had in her own private collection until her death...a very different period than the art we had seen at the Uffizi.  Most spectacular to me (in addition to my two favorite paintings here) was the location of the house, right on the Grand Canal...she must have had quite a life! The other kids were worn out long before Julia but luckily the grounds offered places to relax.  

When we were kicked out of the museum at closing, we decided to make our way back to the train station and home to Treviso to have dinner at our favorite pizzeria, Da Pino, and to see this year’s show and finally find out what the kids have been up to all this time that we have been barred from being near them.  When we got to the train station, it became clear that though trains were coming up on the board as departures, no trains were actually leaving the station. We learned that no trains would leave until after the strike ended at 9 and that even then there was no guarantee what time the train that was supposed to be leaving at 9:30 would actually get to Venice (depending on where it had to come from at 9).  It was recommended we take a bus  – so we walked over to the bus station and found that a bus was in fact leaving in 10 minutes for Treviso.  Unfortunately many many other people got the same information and the bus was so packed. We forced our way onto the bus standing in what felt like the last seven spots, but somehow at least 10 people boarded after us.  All you could do was laugh really.  We took a local route that had many stops and every time someone got off the bus, at least the same number (often a few more) boarded.  Laura started saying “NO” to anyone who tried to enter the front of the bus.  

We didn’t get back to Treviso until almost 9 and went straight to Da Pino.  Their pizza really is fantastic.  Julia had originally said she didn’t want gelato for a birthday dessert, but I am glad she changed her mind and asked to go for gelato after dinner (I didn’t have other options up my sleeve at that point). At home, the big surprise was revealed:  rather than put on a show for us that night, the girls had made a movie of the Pink Panther starring themselves, using the flip and Windows Movie Maker to put the whole thing together.   Rachel played Inspector Clouseau, Neve was Chief Inspector Dreyfus, Xania, and assistant soccer coach, Julia was Nicole, Yuri the Trainer, sound guy, and diamond cutter, and Meg was Ponton.  It was hilarious!!  They used all of our clothes to put together fantastic costumes.  Really funny was seeing what they had been up to while we just totally left them alone – scenes filmed in the streets, in the car, in the stairwell, and the apartments.  Even after all the hours they put in, they didn’t have time to film the final scenes, but they have made a pact to finish the movie next time they are together. 

All in all a pretty memorable birthday.  Last year she woke up in a castle in England, this year a day exploring Venice...the pressure is on for next year!  (The inequity is not lost on Rachel!)  

Sadly, the Brennans left first thing this morning and the girls and I are spending a very quiet day, doing some painting, and adjusting to being alone again.  I am trying to get rid of a scratchy throat and work with the girls to plan out what we want to see on the rest of our trip.   We had only two short outings today, both taking us to the artisan gelato shop Laura and I had found and I wanted to show the girls (and then we wanted to show Jim after dinner).   We left LA three weeks ago today – only 5 weeks left!