Today, we traveled to a land (five lands?) popularized by the patron saint of European travel Rick Steves. We’re staying in the tiny town of Corniglia, the middle city of the five cities that make up Cinque Terre. I was fascinated to learn that one of my favorite pasta sauces (pesto) and one my favorite breads (focaccia) were invented in this region.  I’m really looking forward to eating lots of tasty Italian food. Meanwhile, Valerie is looking forward to the gorgeous coastal hikes that Rick Steves talks about in his books.

Valerie is not feeling well again.  Yesterday, we drank the tap water in Venice and perhaps that wasn’t a good idea.  While I’m still recovering from the effects of the tap water in Prague and thus have increased tap water immunity (this probably isn’t true), Valerie was hit by the dreaded tap water troubles.  Rather than heading into Venice, we stayed in Mestre today.  While walking around town, we found Jungle Pizza, a restaurant that won Best Non-Traditional Pizza at the International Pizza Competition in Las Vegas.  The place was super busy and the pizza was really tasty.

Our train arrived at Venezia Mestre station around 9am in the morning. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and then headed to Venice on the bus. We then took a vaporetto (water bus) along the canal before disembarking at St. Mark’s Square. In quick succession, we visited the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral before taking a quick walking tour of the square. (At the Doge’s Palace, we learned that St. Mark was not the original saint of Venice, but rather St. Theodore, slayer of crocodiles.) We then proceeded to take Rick Steves’s advice and get lost in Venice while trying to find our way back to the bus stop.

I think Valerie regrets that we are staying in Mestre instead of on the island. The 30 minute bus ride to the city and back is a bit inconvenient and I feel like we are missing out on the evening charm of Venice. If we ever return, we’re definitely staying in the city, even if we need to haul our luggage across half of it to do so.

We headed to the imperial residences of Hofburg Palace (winter home of the Holy Roman Emperor). Further disappointing Valerie, the palace did not resemble a castle. Rather, it was a collection of finely decorated rooms, just like every other palace. One thing I’ve noticed about all these palaces is the lack of hallways. One room just leads into the next room which leads into the next. It seems like it would be annoying to have people constantly walking through the room you are in as they move about the palace, but I guess that is the price of royalty. In contrast, as the show “The West Wing” has taught me, the White House is loaded with hallways. But I digress…

In the evening, we headed to the Naschmarkt to pick up some dinner. Naschmarkt is a dedicated two block area of various food related stores (restaurants, bars, shops). There were a lot delicious looking food options, but since we needed to hop on a night train to Venice in a couple hours, we opted for a couple of take-away sandwiches.

Today, we roughly followed Rick Steves’s advice about what to do on one’s first day in Vienna. We started by heading to the Opera building to catch a Big Red Bus tour around town. Unfortunately, we just missed the bus and the next one wasn’t leaving for an hour, so we visited the nearby Albertina Museum in the meantime. After the museum and the bus tour, we followed Rick Steves’s walking guide to the Kaisergruft and St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Besides being walking tour destinations, these two places have another thing in common: the remains of deceased members of the Habsburg royal family are (supposedly) stored in both locations.

In the evening, we headed over to the opera to get “standing room” tickets to that night’s show (Boris Godunov). After standing for about an hour, Valerie decided she’d had enough culture for the night and we headed back to the hotel.