After a long day of traveling, we arrived at Marco Polo airport and found the water bus to Venecia. The night was cold, not breezy, and not much of a moon. After consulting with a person and the GPS, we realized our stop station was the Rialto bridge stop.
As we learned, moving around Venice with baggage is challenging, especially going up and over smaller canal bridges. After we left the water bus and started walking, we struggled to cross over a small bridge to get to our hotel. The Splendid Venice Star Hotel. We were so grateful after 10 minutes to find our hotel that when we entered, I just stood there enjoying the warmth of the space.
Our 4th-floor room with a canal view is very nice, I especially love the bathroom. Bathtub, shower, and bidet and toilet.
And of course the Illy machine for coffee and these sweet small expresso cups.
The tango festival starts on Friday, so we have a few days to explore the islands.
After getting over the temperature, I understand the
the reason people love Venice. It has small streets similar in feeling to Barcelona’s El Born. The streets are filled with glass shop after glass shop selling blown glass trinkets in the shape of dragons to cherries with a large eagle, too. Then there are the stores that sell masks to high-end handbags and clothing stores.
There are lots of made-in-China stores, too, so buyers beware. There are lots of restaurants with pizza to pasta and some smaller cafes offering coffee, pastries, and chocolates.
Public transportation takes place in the canals with small and large water buses, Vaporetti. These water buses hold approximately 25 people at a time. We will buy a 3-day pass tomorrow, and this will allow us to discover the city through its canals.
As to the weather, it hasn’t rained, only sprinkled. But the risers are out in St. Marks Square near the St Marks Basilica. They are used to raising the walkways a couple of feet, allowing people to walk the area without getting inundated by water as Venice is sinking. I don’t want to imagine the city underwater as that would be devastating.
The city goes indoors with all this cold weather and seems to be asleep by 22 or so. Walking the small streets at night is a bit of an adventure as on most nights we are accompanied by others speaking Russian, French, Spanish, and lots of Italian. I love listening to this cacophony of languages, but the Italians are the most expressive.
In our 4 days in the city, we have had many different coffee experiences and stopped at a few high-end clothing stores not only to shop but to get out of the cold weather. There are many small carts stacked with tacky cheap souvenirs that are not of Italian origin. The range of food experiences has mostly been a bit above mediocre even after dining in a few top-rated tratorrias.
But the views and the people are fantastic. Even when just being casual, the Italians have mastered dressing up. It’s the attention to detail and the symmetry chaos…will depend on the person and/or the occasion. Makes for such great people-watching!!!
We are now on the island of San Servolo for the La Reunión Milinguera. This island in the past was home to an insane asylum. Seems poetic justice for a tango Encuentro to be held in such a place as we are all a bit crazy or eccentric to be dancing tango.
Today is Sunday. The final day of the Milinguera. Dancing will start a bit earlier because many people must depart. This has been a fun meet-up allowing us to reconnect with a few folks that we met in Rome. Most of the crowd is Italian with a few French, German, Irish, and a few Americans, too. There are a total of 5 milongas with two each day and the final afternoon one on Sunday. The DJs have been a mixed bag as two were at the festival in Rome, and two were not.
At this milonga, the dancers are mostly dancing in close embrace. Only a few individuals are dancing in open embrace with giro, giro, and giro. Most of the dancers are on time to the music and listen to the music, making the floor a lively place to dance.
Appetizers are served during each afternoon Milonga, but the approach is often very chaotic. When the food arrives, people tend to rush to the serving area, creating lines of chaos. Opps but is not really a line but a swarming.
The same effect is true for the bar area that offers a complimentary beverage ranging from Prosecco to a Campari spritz. I’m not sure if this process can be any smoother!
The accommodations are suitable for a Milonga location. The only issue has been the lack of light at night as during the day, large windows let in a lot of light.
Tonight, we will have dinner with friends before we depart for our homes in various countries. It will be bittersweet as we have enjoyed the company.
The next stop for us is Buenos Aires. We will live here again for approx 4 months. We will reinitialize friendships and finish off a few projects. We will attend the milongas. We will discover the changes in the country that we left earlier this year in April.
Abrazo and many thanks to the organizer of La Reunión Miloguera Michele Sottocasa and his talented crew for making a wonderful event.
