Rain on New Year's Day

Despite our best efforts, Joe has come down with a little cold. He decided to go back to bed after breakfast, giving me two hours to walk around our neighborhood and get a little exercise. I made it up to see the Calatrava bridge (WHOSE idea was it to put a Calatrava bridge over the Grand Canal?), found a few more churches and nice piazzas, and just as my time was running out it began to rain. I am sure I was wandering in circles, but by following the signs to one end (train station and bus station) or the other end (Rialto and San Marco), I was always able to make it back to my little spot in the middle. I saw a fair number of people using their phones, but I think it is more fun to follow the signs, especially since I had no real destination in mind.

We decided to spend the day in two museums that had unexpectedly opened on New Year's Day. One, the Modern Art Museum, had a painting by one of my all time favorites, Sorolla. That alone was worth the visit. Picasso, Miro, Calder, Max Lieberman, Klimt, Andy Warhol, Chagall and a few others you'd recognize also had paintings there. Lunch in the museum café was fine if not exceptional, and then we got a vaporetto down to a Doge palace open for visits, Ca Rezzonico. Though the building was much older, they had restored its furnishings and interior decoration to the 18th century style and it was quite grand. Lovely views right over the Grand Canal, those doges and their families had it pretty nice.

The rain was still coming down a bit, so we decided to head back to the hotel so Joe could get another nap before dinner. I brought my cold-eze and Airborne, so he hopes to nip it in the bud. While he sleeps, I will try to figure out how we will get out to two islands tomorrow, Murano and Torcello, both of which have ancient churches. Murano is also the site of all the famous glass making, and a glass making museum, but I doubt we will be buying too many 45 euro glasses. Though some of them are very pretty! Dinner in a few hours back at a place where we ate a few nights ago. The waitress told us they were one of the few in the area that would be open for dinner on January 1, so we went ahead and made a reservation then.

Only two more days, can't believe it!Read more