Mood:
happyWe had several minor successes on Saturday, and perhaps one big one. I’ll write the whole story and let you decide for yourselves which successes are which.
The day started off with our intent to go to Venice for the opening day of Carnevale. We have heard that Venice does it up really well, and if you don’t mind the crowds, you can see costumes as ordinary as the “bought-of-the-shelf” Halloween type, or as extravagant is any you might see in the movies or at Renaissance fairs. We decided that any amount of time spent in Italy would be, at best, incomplete if you didn’t see this, at least once, so we that was the plan.
Although Venice is only an hour away by car, we didn’t want to drive, simply because we didn’t want to park. If you recall, Kimberly went to Venice on one of her days with the Benvenuti tour. She remembered that the Train Station in Venice was right off of the Grand Canal, and very near the Rialto bridge, from which a walk to San Marco Square would be fairly easy, perhaps a little long, but almost entirely lined with tourist shops, market style carts, and lots of people reveling, just like us.
So we decided to take the train. We had never done this before, in Italy. Kimberly’s trip was organized and controlled by an Italian tour guide. This time, we were solo! We arrived at the train station in Grisignano Di Zocco, the town next to ours, and the closest train station to our house. Significantly, they also offer free parking. We walked into the station, found the ATM style automatic ticket machine, and worked through our broken understanding of Italian to by three round trip tickets for a mere 20Euro. A bargain, since parking along would have cost that and more. At this point, we realized that our train was only minutes away, just by luck, so we wandered to the track. The train arrived, we sat, and about an hour later, we were there!
Again, we left the station and found ourselves on the Grand Canal, gondolas, water taxis, and all. We immediately turned left and began our walk to San Marco, stopping often to visit shops and carts on the way.
After a couple of hours, and having looked at no less than thousands of masks, we found ourselves in San Marco, where we walked for just a little bit, took some pictures, and then began walking back to the Station. This may seem odd, so let me explain. We’ve done Venice before. This trip was about Carnevale. I was determined that Kimberly would not leave Venice without a mask that she could tell everyone she got during Carnevale. That being said, we saw, again, thousands of marks. All different shapes, sizes, colors, made of different materials, some plain, some extravagant, some with feathers, beads, leather, you name it, it’s on a mask in Venice. Not knowing exactly what we were looking for, we were pretty much stunned into inactivity by the sheer volume of choices we had to make. –But again, I was determined. Finally, on the way out to San Marco, we found what I think was the perfect mask. By “perfect,” I mean that Kimberly likes it. By “Kimberly likes it,” I mean that it was simply designed, expertly made, fancy without being gaudy or tacky, suitable for hanging on our “Italy Wall.” Mostly, though, I just mean that Kimberly likes it, and so it’s hers! Truth be told, I like it, too, but it being Valentine’s Day, Carnevale, and all of that, I would have bought it, anyway, even if I didn’t.
No pictures of her mask on the BLOG. You’ll just have to come to the house and see it for yourself.
After we found the mask, we walked back to the train station, did some more shopping near there (by which I mean that Jacoby wanted to get his girlfriend a mask for Valentine ’s Day, as well. She ended up with two.) Then we headed back to the train for the ride home.
At this point, we were crunched for time. It wasn’t because the train was leaving, there were more of those, it’s just that the movie on post was going to start at 6:00p. This was significant because Jenny would be there, and that would present Jacoby with his only shot at giving her the masks that he took forever deciding on. It was going to be VERY close.
As it turns out, we made it to the movie theater during the previews. It ended up being a really dumb movie (The Day the Earth Stood Still), but we didn’t mind, and I don’t think Jacoby noticed. At least it was something to do away from the house.
Then we came home, played on the Wii for a little while, and went to bed.
And that was our Carnevale experience.
