Tag: Gelato

Venice and Bologna (2024 Europe)

Venice and Bologna (2024 Europe)

Previous post here.

Our flight landed at the Venice Marco Polo Airport. It was a short walk to the Alilaguna, which is the water bus that you can take into Venice proper. While it did take over an hour to get to our stop (we probably stopped at 5 or 6 locations before our stop), it was a nice tour of Venice from the water. The first bus stop was actually another island (Murano) which was neat to see (I know some people will actually take a water taxi there to explore and eat some food but we didn’t do that so it was nice to see it here). We got off at the St. Mark’s Square stop since our hotel was quite close to that location. Art Biennale (La Biennale d’Arte di Venezia) was happening while we were there. I guess this is a famous art festival that is held here. During our trip we did end up checking out some exhibits (they were scattered through the city).

Our hotel, Al Codega hotel, was tucked inside of a square so at first was a bit confusing trying to find it. It was a cute historic hotel and while the room was small, we didn’t spend much time in it.

After checking in, it was time for dinner so we walked around and had dinner at Osteria del Lovo. D ordered the fish pasta dish which was yum and we shared some polenta with meat and finished with a tiramisu.

The following day after a nice breakfast at the hotel (another hot one), we walked over to Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square) where we saw Basilica di San Marco, Campanile di San Marco, Palazzo Ducale, Torre dell’Orologio (Clock Tower). The square was crowded with people taking pictures but also waiting in line for the Basilica and the museum. We had some time to kill before our lunch reservation.

Cruising part 3 (Italy, Greek isles)(2024 Europe)

Continuation from previous post.

We continued south on our cruise and stopped on the island of Sicily at Messina. This sleepy port town didn’t really have too much to do. We planned another half day since it was still scorching hot and gross to be out for the full day. The main attraction is the Campanile del Duomo con Orologio Astronomico
(Astronomical Clock of the Cathedral of Messina). At 12 o’clock noon each day the clock has movement show with its mechanical infrastructure.

We happened to be there while the european professional volleyball was having a tournament – set up just adjacent to the cathedral.

After seeing the church and realizing we had a few hours to kill before noon, we walked through town to La Tradizione Doddis. One thing Sicily is known for is something called a granita with coffee. There are also other more dessert like variations with fruits, almond, mint. In Messina, granita with brioche is a common summer breakfast, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Afterwards we meandered through town checking out the various historic buildings, passing by a monastery. And then we settled back across from the church to watch the noon show.

Barcelona (2024 Europe)

Barcelona (2024 Europe)

Earlier this summer, we took a 3 week trip to Europe. This was our first big trip since COVID. The trip started with a 10 day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines, which was a re-do from our trip originally scheduled for last year. The starting point was to be Barcelona and originally we were scheduled to arrive about 1.5 days early. Having been to Barcelona before, we didn’t feel the need/rush to try to see all the big things (La Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, Casa Batlló) since we had seen it before. There were a few places that we missed out on previously.

Our trip didn’t start off quite as planned. I woke up the morning of our flight only to see an email from the airline (LEVEL) that our flight had been cancelled. As soon as I saw this, I contacted customer services only to be told that the next flight they could get me on was for 2 days (meaning we would arrive AFTER our cruise departed). I had even checked their web site which indicated they had a few seats available for a flight the next day but the service representative said that wasn’t available. My only recourse was to have them refund me and then scramble to find a last minute flight with any airline. Luckily Aer Lingus had a flight that same evening (also an overnight flight but with a stop in Dublin). Having never flow on Aer Lingus, I have to say that it was a comfortable flight although a pig of a trip with the overnight. We arrived late on Friday evening and took the bus to Plaça de Catalunya, which is kind of a central meeting point in Barcelona but also very close to our hotel. We checked in and passed out for 10 hours and then had about 24 hours of sightseeing before needing to board the boat.

The next morning we walked over to a popular brunch spot, Picnic, after passing the Arc de Triomf in Passeig de Lluís Companys.

With brunch complete, we walked over to the Picasso museum and checked out the art. It ended up being a lot smaller than I thought so we managed to get through it relatively quickly.

Since we were near the Ramblas and the Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, we walked through the market and took in all the various goods that were sale from fresh fruit, juices to the vegetables and meat and seafood.