Venice: City of Islands – 11/3/2010

We arrived late, wet, cold and exhausted. The first night I just relaxed with some buddies. Early the next day we all took the vaporetta to San Marco Square for a tour of the Doge’s Palace. It was much larger than it appears from the exterior and what I expected. Rich materials, paintings, furniture and fixtures covered the interior. What caught my attention the most was the scale of the justice rooms. As soon as I entered the armory my brother’s face popped into my head. It is not what you are thinking; I love my brother and just know he would have enjoyed this room the most. Swords, shields, armor, bows and arrows, etc were displayed in glass case in several rooms. I was shocked by the size of the armor; I don’t think I could have fit into them. They were petite and skinny. My brother entered my thoughts again as I descended down to the prisons, not because he is a bad boy, but because he would have found interest in the writings and drawings on the chambers walls. After we all regrouped in front of the church we took our turn pushing through the Asian tourist groups to see the beautiful façade of the church. It was gorgeous but not as pleasurable of an experience walking through due to the amount of tourists everywhere. We spent a whole five minutes inside because it was so bad. The large group of us split up and got a quick lunch and wandered back towards the hotel on foot. Before we knew it we were on the top of the Rialto Bridge. Vendors’ Alley is what I would call it. I liked it better than the Ponte Vecchio in a few ways. One was I could afford what they were selling if I wanted to verses high end jewelry. The unique difference the Ponte Vecchio had was the old style security wood doors and canopies to cover it up completely. As we were walking on a less touristy street we noticed a man blowing glass in a store window to our left. Mesmerized the three of us walked in through the open door to a small shop. The African man greeted us in Italian. Watching him work and talking to him for about half an hour we got to know him well and vice versa. He was originally from Africa but went to Japan to compete in Kick Boxing tournaments for several years and won a few titles. He bought this shop with some of his earnings and started his jewelry glass blowing store. I could not help but ask him about the music he was playing. The salsa music was one of his favorites. I shared with him I too enjoy it especially when I can dance to it. The three of us each bought something different. Brooke bought a key chain, Alyssa bought a pair of earrings and I bought a necklace. We started to say our good byes when he gave us some simple key chains for free. Then as he handed me mine he did not release my hand but instead pulled me further into the store and began dancing with me to the instrumental salsa music. I was so surprised I did not know what to feel as my body moved like it had been wanting to this whole time we had talked to him as the music played softly in the background. It had been awhile since I had danced last but the moves flowed out of me as if I have been doing everyday for years. It was the typical “it’s like riding a bicycle” syndrome. By the time the song ended my face was flushed with my pearly whites exposed. I predicted as we left that was going to be my favorite and the single most memorable experience on this north trip. That night I ended up on what a waiter thought was a date between Conner and I which made for an interesting time. The waiter was nice and gave us some names of a couple other bars and a discotecca he said would be open. We planned on going with our friends but when we midnight rolled around we found it was still closed and did not look like it was going to open. We made the most of it the situation by taking in the quiet night streets drinking warm sangria at a fruit stand by day and a bar by night vendor.