Our next destination, only a 13-minute walk from the bookstore, was La Fenice Theater. WOW!! All I can say is WOW! This ended up being Anara’s most favorite place we visited of all that we did, and she wants to go back and see an opera there someday. Yes, it was so moving for her, she’d actually sit through an opera just to hear music in that beautiful space. I would agree that it is a truly stunning work of art. Judge for yourselves.
There is an audio tour that you can get with a headset which we paid for. For the most part, we toured in silence but mostly together. It gave quite a lot of history of the theater which has burned more than once. It also gave some biographical information on Maria Callas and other famous opera vocalists that have gotten the privilege of performing at this treasure of a theater. At one point on the tour, we were taken through some of the halls where grand dinners and parties were held (still are, if I’m not mistaken). It was wonderful that for a few moments we got to hear a local pianist playing for whoever wanted to sit and listen. I absolutely loved this!
The La Fenice has an amazing history and it’d be well-worth reading a bit about it. Just a tip.
I’d highly recommend The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt if you want a good historical fiction option.
When the self-guided tour was over for us, we made our way out and headed to the last destination I’d wanted to see- the Squero di San Travaso Gondola Shipyard. From one website: “The age-old Squero di San Trovaso has been the place where traditional Venetian boats, in particular, gondolas, the city’s symbol all over the world, have been built and repaired since the 1600s. A magical place where Lorenzo, the current squerariól and owner, has been working for about thirty years. Considering how often these fascinating boats need maintenance, as the average lifespan is about fifty years, repairing constitutes a significant part of the activity. But the Squero also builds new boats, usually one per year. The building of a gondola, in fact, takes two to three months of non-stop work and 280 pieces of wood from eight different essences. No preliminary design or drawing, all the knowledge is handed down from one generation to the next, just like Lorenzo is doing with his son Alberto.”
This is a VERY small little museum but with some really fantastic gondola history and pieces to see. There is a little movie to watch about the construction of gondolas with some history as well. Here are the few photos I took while there and then one from the outside taken from the opposite side of the canal looking back to the gondola-shipyard.
And a few last photos of Venice as we found dinner:
By now, it was getting dark and time to find some dinner. We’d passed a place earlier in our wanderings that made our mouths water and made note of it. Like they always say, when in Italy, make sure to get some excellent African food. Okay, fine, it was rather unconventional, but that’s exactly what we did. And we weren’t sorry even a little bit. This food was incredibly flavorful and really a nice change from Italian. Best of all, we had the entire place to ourselves and the kind attention of our Eritrean hostess. The whole place we full of African art from carved wood to tile work to colorful cloth and costumes. I remember I had a fresh juice drink (non-alcoholic) with turmeric and the mafe which I’ve eaten many times in the past. It’s super spicy and soooo flavorful with a rich peanut sauce. Yum! Sadly, we had to leave some behind as it was our last night and we had no way to eat it before taking off in the morning.
We didn’t hurry as we made our way back to the bus station to take us back across to the mainland and our Airbnb; we wanted to soak up our last few moments of a magical vacation.
The next morning, the Airbnb provided a little shuttle van to the airport and man are we ever glad we got there wayyyyyyyy too early! Remember that little bit at the beginning of the last chapter? About being way too early? Yeahhhh, ummm, the Marco Polo Airport is an absolute $hit$how and I will NEVER fly into or out of there again. I will for SURE choose to fly into Bologna and just take a train. So, we get there and wait around forever to check in because they don’t post which window to go to until like 90 minutes before your flight. By then, it’s WAY too late for all of the bull$hit they are about to put you through. We finally are told which check-in window to use and wait in line for like half an hour. Only to get to the front and find out that Anara’s ticket didn’t have baggage included?! Like ***? What international flight doesn’t have at least one bag of #70 included?! About 30% of the folks in line were told the same thing. (I smell a scam!) But to make it even more bizarre and maddening, we were all sent to another place in another part of the airport to pay for said bag. We wait in line another 30 minutes (you’re doing the math right?) because this lady’s electronic credit card reader wasn’t working! How can you expect people to pay if you don’t have a way for them to pay? She finally got it working, but by then the people in the line were absolutely livid and totally freaking out- us included. I can’t know for sure, but I do fear some may have missed the flight. After we paid, we had to go back to the original line and wait again so we could show we’d paid and were then given boarding passes. We made the fight, but only barely and were some of the very last people to get on. NOT a good way to end such an otherwise wonderful and unforgettable vacation.
As we flew out and over Venice, then over the Alps, and the over the lovely fields of Europe, my blood pressure came down and I was able to reflect on my grand tour of Italy and Greece. Would I go there again? Oh yes, definitely. I’d stay longer in Tuscany and Bologna, I’d skip Naples altogether, and make sure I visited Murano near Venice, make my own Carnival mask, and see a symphony at La Fenice. I loved Zakynthos in Greece more than Santorini, Ioved that I sought out places that fewer tourists go, and I love that I could share all it with my girls.
And with that, my friends, this TR comes to a conclusion. I can’t thank those of you who stuck around until the end. It’s great to have you reading along!
watch for the e-mails for chapter posts!
If you have enjoyed reading about this thoroughly amazing trip throughout Italy, please follow me on my next adventure to BALI!!!! I experienced incredible hospitality, some of the best food on Earth, and truly exotic scenery and culture and can’t wait to share it with you!!
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