Matt and Jen's Excellent Italian Adventure: March 2014

About an hour NW of us is a town called Domodossola and you will notice that the only reviews on Tripadvisor are in Italian. This is one of my favorite things about living here is the ability to investigate these smaller picturesque towns that I normally wouldn't have time for on a vacation. Last Saturday morning we took a day trip to Sacro Monte in Domodossola which was building in the 1600's. It overlooks Domodossola and is one of nine catholic sanctuaries in this region and is on the UNESCO world heritage list.

I love this about Lake Maggiore....Palm trees and snow!

After hiking around, we headed another 30 minutes north to the Premia thermal baths. They have indoor and outdoor pools and you are surrounded by the mountains. It is spectacular! Here are some pics from the drive also.

There are certain places that you go that are touristy for a reason and Venice is definitely one of them. On our past travels (we backpacked Europe in 2003 and 2005 as college students) we went to Venice both times and I realize this is our 3rd time (LOL!), but it is....magical! Venice is so unique and I have not been to another city like it. Yes, you have to watch your wallet like a hawk both from the thieves and the restaurants and I know, it is always packed even in March and it is expensive, but if you have not been....GO! Ok I suppose I sound like a commercial and no I am not getting paid to advertise for Venice ;-) I am somewhat biased, because Matt and I were engaged right in St. Mark's square in 2005.

View looking out from St. Mark's across the entrance

Quick story time and I will let you get back to looking at pictures. In 2005 Matt and I had just finished our MS degrees in Mechanical Engineering and before we settled down into the real world we took a second backpacking trip to Europe for 5 weeks. I had wondered why Matt was so inclined to do our laundry and sit with the laundry while we were in the hostel (no this is not typical behavior for him and surprisingly this comes into the story later). Then I found out why he watched the laundry so closely on one magical night in Venice. We went to a nice dinner and rode a gondola and I had worn a cute dress I found in another city (I had zero idea this was coming, the night just worked out so well). After the gondola ride, we went to sit in St. Mark's square and share a drink. Matt went to the restroom and when we came back he asked if I wanted to dance. In St. Mark's square in the summer they have quartets playing in the square (ps this is why we had a quartet play at our wedding and I searched long and hard to find one) and there are lights and lots of people dancing and hanging out. We were dancing and he says to me "wow, look at that monkey over there" and of course I turn to see the monkey and when I turned around to ask him where he was on a single knee! I pulled out the photo from that night.....

Our engagement night in 2005

So I am sure you want to know why he had to watch the laundry, right? My mother in law had sewed the ring into a pair of his underwear then he went to the bathroom to cut it out of his underwear before he proposed. What thief would have checked a pair of underwear for an engagement ring? :-) And for those of you who know my cute, goofy husband you are not surprised by this and you are laughing your butt off.

Now that I think of it.....We were engaged in Venice, we got married at a Tuscan themed winery and now we live in Italy.....interesting?!

Our wedding in 2007

Ok I digress! I got off on a tangent and no one was here to stop me. Back to our present day 2014 trip to Venice. We drove into Venice on Friday afternoon and we parked at the garage in Piazzale Roma. The sun was setting and it was a great time to get some pictures as we walked to our hotel near San Marco Square.

Pumpkin ravioli my new favorite

The next morning we took the boat trip over to Murano Island. For those of you who don't know, Murano is well known for glass blowing and they have an island full of glass shops and glass blowing demonstrations and makes for a great day trip! With all of the stops it takes about 45 minutes to get there so that gives plenty of time to take in the scenery.

On the pier

Sasha liked Venice too and Venice loved her

On the boat

After a morning of glass shopping we have to stop for espresso (yup, we are becoming Italian!)

Fantastic display in the piazza on Murano

Murano

I loved this! These guys had demi jons full of wine and they were singing and rowing!

This guy started learning glass blowing at around age 14. In Italy it is an apprentice program that takes at least 20-25 years to become a master glass blower.

He made the horse in under a minute, because you only have one minute before the glass becomes too cold to form....

I have to say the culture on Murano was very different today compared to 2005. I walked into the shops this time and I didn't feel the creepy salesman vibe that was in play several years ago. All of the shops were really friendly and not pushy. They were happy to show you around and answer questions. They all wanted to know why we are living in Italy and they liked speaking a little Italian with Americans and we could understand.

Later that night we went to a little family owned restaurant that one of the glass shops recommended. We asked for a place he eats and not a 'toursity' place and he recommended Alla Vedova, a family run place off of Strada Nova in Cannaregio. Of course it was down a little side alley and we found it by pure accident. At first when we walked down the alley we were wondering why the alley was so crowded at 7pm (Italians eat at 8 or 10 pm), but we took a chance and pushed through the crowd. Inside was just packed and the guy that walked behind us asked for a table for 2 in Italian so we followed him and did the same and we snagged a table. The tables were totally empty and the crowd was there for appertivo (Italians always go for drinks and snacks before dinner). This place was famous for their meatballs and I thought to myself why would a place be famous for meatballs. Oh how wrong I was! These meatballs were awesome!! I don't know how they made these, but they were little flavor bombs of goodness...

meatbalss

A popular venetian dish is spicy spaghetti sauce with shrimp...

bursala

On our previous visits to Venice we didn't get a chance to see the Doge's palace so Sunday morning that is what we did. Venice has something like 11 museums so you have to really pick and choose. I got in a few pictures before I saw all of the signs that told me not to take pictures (oops! :-) ). For the folks who like history look up history behind Doge's Palace. I am not going to recount everything about it, but a few interesting facts. I had always wondered why they call the Bridge outside of the palace the "Bridge of Sighs". That is because the palace had a prison and the bridge linked the prison and courts and they said the bridge could hear the prisons sigh as they walked across it, because that would be their last sight of venice before heading into the dungeons to live out their sentence.