Today is sadly our last day of the Sabbatical. We started the day by heading to the Palzzao Fortuny Museum. The museum was quite cool. It was the personal Palazzo of the Artist Fortuny. They had a few other exhibits but the building itself was really cool. The special exhibit was of Zoran Music. Honestly, (this is Dave), I did not think his art was that impressive. Sara liked it though. The permanent exhibit I thought was really cool. Fortuny designed a few theaters and there were models he developed which I also thought were really cool.
After visiting the museum, we headed to grab some Pizza. We headed over to Birreria La Corte. It was one of the few pizzerias on Venice that are allowed to burn wood. Most are restricted to gas due to fire danger. The pizza was quite delicious.
With the Pizza finished, we headed out to run some errands. Even though our planned destinations were only a few 100 meters away, with poor directions each stop took about 15-20 minutes to get to. One of the important stops was to grab some Gelato. We took this shot of relaxing gondoliers as we ate it.
Tonight we have a massage, followed by heading back to Osteria 4 Feri for some pasta and seafood. Tomorrow morning we take the water taxi back to the airport and fly back to the States. Because it was our last day it was important to us to make sure to eat Pizza, Pasta, and Gelato one last time.
Overall, this has been quite an amazing experience. In numbers we have done:
- 300+ Miles of Walking
- 4000+ km of driving
- 60+ Bottles of Wine (not all betweeen just the two of us)
- 5 Cases of Wine successfuly shipped home
- 100+ new words Dave has already forgotten in Italian
- 3 Countries Visited
- 6 Ski Resort Slayed
- 40 Euro lost at gas stations
- All of the Pizza, Pasta, and Cheese Consumed
- 0 days we didn’t talk at length about what Joe and Penny were doing
60 days is a long time to spend on vacation. Luckily, we both agree if we were to do it over again, there is not much we would have changed. The skiing was epic and the road trip was an incredible experience. An interesting perspective is that it is rare for couples to spend 60 days without separation with their partner. Usually you have to wait until retirement for that and even then you likely have some alone time when one runs out. Luckily, Sara and I really enjoyed spending the time with each other. Neither of us felt like we needed time apart or a break which I think is good.
I am very thankful for all of the hard work that Sara put in to earn this Sabbatical. Hopefully we get to do it again sometime in the future. What a long, strange trip it’s been and we can’t for the next one.
Alla prossima, Europe.
The Italian government stepped in the 1950s and kicked the entire city out. Afterwards, some leases were granted in the 1980s but for the most part, the historical center of town consists of hotels and bed and breakfasts. That means that it is quite touristy here.
Inside there are several frescos that date back to the same period.
As the town is built in the hillside there are a ton of stairs to venture across.
The line for the basilica was kind of long but it’s so impressive inside it was worth it. We also jumped the line accidentally at the Vatican Museum and got to see the Sistine Chapel before closing, along with a few other cool rooms. The map room was a favorite.
After all that churching and arting, we headed back to our neighborhood to have an Aperitivo at Freni e Frazione. They had quite the spread of food. Upon completion of our first drink, we headed to our next Aperitivo at caffe del Moro. Dinner tonight is at Taverna Trilussa Trastevere.
This morning was sort of overcast but warm, we had a coffee from the bar directly in front of the apartment before taking off for a day of sightseeing. Being Matt’s first trip to Europe we made sure to show him a bunch of cool old stuff on our way to the Coliseum. Unlike when we were here six years ago in January, today the major attractions were packed with people and the line was almost two hours long. We decided to buy the Roma Pass which gets you into a bunch of museums and archeological sights for discounted rates or free and allows you to jump the line. It also lets you ride the buses and metro for free so if you plan to see more than one or two places it’s a pretty good deal. Plus not waiting in line with street hawkers in your face for two hours has got to be worth something…
After walking through the town, we made it to the church and queued up our Rick Steve’s guided tour audio and set about the church.
