Italy: Venice and Another 3 Country Birthday Celebration!

Another 3 Country Birthday

Our sweet S turned 11 on this day...so we celebrated another "3 Country Birthday" as we made our way from Croatia through Slovenia to Italy.

V's card to S which I thought was hilarious....

H and AJ's birthday cards / messages to S are at the end of the post.

Rovinj, Croatia

We left Pula, Croatia and took the advice of Dado, the B&B owner in Pula, and ate lunch in Rovinj, Croatia.   Rovinj is a quaint town on the Croatian coast and was a wonderful place for a birthday lunch....

Piran, Slovenia

Next, we headed north a couple of hours to Piran, Slovenia for birthday ice cream.  We had originally planned staying 2 nights here but after looking closer at the reviews of the place we had chosen (which were horrific) we were able to cancel without penalty and applied that time to our Pula trip.  Still, we wanted to visit Piran and so we spent a couple of hours here.

Waiting for the bus in Piran as no cars are allowed in the downtown area...

Downtown Piran...similar to Rovinj in that the town sits right on the ocean and is basically made for pedestrians...

We went to the ice cream / dessert place and H ended up with this massive piece of cheesecake for the same cost as S' little ice cream cone.  The faces tell the story ;)

When we left the downtown area, we walked back as it was a beautiful stroll along the ocean...

Italy greeted us with a sunset over the Italian Alps...

S opened cards once we got to the hotel....notice the interest AJ gave the endeavor ;)

Venice

The next day we headed into Venice!  What an interesting and fun city this is.  One cannot help but think 'Why in the world did anyone think to build a city like this on the water?'  I had always thought that the city was built and then the Adriatic Sea rose to engulf it, but that is not what happened at all.  It was built this way on purpose to make it difficult for barbaric tribes to attack the city.  In fact there was a time many centuries ago that the people of Venice re-routed nearby rivers to insure that silt wouldn't build a land bridge to the city.

Amazingly, the buildings of Venice are constructed on closely spaced wooden piles. Most of these piles are still intact after centuries of submersion. The foundations rest on the piles, and buildings of brick or stone sit above these footings. The piles penetrate a softer layer of sand and mud until they reach a much harder layer of compressed clay.

Submerged by water, in oxygen-poor conditions, wood does not decay as rapidly as on the surface.

Most of these piles were made from trunks of alder trees, a wood noted for its water resistance. The alder came from the westernmost part of today's Slovenia (resulting in the barren land of the Kras region), in two regions of Croatia.

We started our day in Venice taking their public transportation system boats through the main channel to St Mark's Basilica.  Here are a number of pictures of the city taken during that boat ride.... 

Apparently the boat captain hasn't heard of the dangers of texting and boating!

Water halfway up the front door (see picture below).  Venice started sinking significantly in the  early 1900s.  The culprit?  To get fresh water, the city tapped into artesian springs found beneath the city.  Something about tapping into that water and using it caused the city to sink.  Venice banned the practice in the 1960s and since then the city has stabilized (though it still gets flooded most years in the spring).  Buildings like the one below simply don't use the bottom floor anymore and create other entry points.

The Rialto Bridge is an architectural wonder that has stood since 1591.  Today it has some of the most expensive shops in Venice lining both sides of the bridge...

The girls laughed at the big naked purple lady in front of this building...

One of the most prevalent items sold in Venice are the masks as 'Carnival' is a big deal in February.  When Rachel and I came to Venice in our college days it was just before we started 'officially' dating...and we came because of Carnival (basically the forerunner of Mardi Gras).

So, the girls really got into the whole idea of making Halloween this year something around the idea of a costume ball.  We shall see...

We ate a nice lunch before heading to St. Mark's Basilica...

Venice gained prestige in the year 828 by purchasing from Alexandria Egypt the relics and remains of St. Mark the Evangelist.  They placed the remains and the relics in their new basilica now named St. Mark's Basilica.  It has a large square in front of it and we spent a good deal of our time in Venice in this area...

The symbol for St. Mark is a winged lion so those are all over this area of the city...

Inside the Basilica...

The Piazza in front of St. Mark's and the famous tower...

There are so many cafes in this area with many having little string quartets playing.  We had ice cream while we listened to the music and took in the ambiance of the city...

And then AJ saw the pigeons...and you can probably figure out what happened next.  My mom will appreciate this as I was just about AJ's age in the early 70s when my family went through Europe and this is pretty much what I did then....like father, like son.

Link if embedded video doesn't work:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhScBlk8gqE

LOVE this picture....

Even S joined the chasing party...

As the afternoon wore on, we finished up some shopping and decided to walk back through the city to the parking lot (yes there is a bridge to the city and a parking lot holding 2,500 cars...which was completely full by the way on the day we were there).  It was a wonderful walk and after chasing pigeons so much in the afternoon, here is what AJ looked like....

On Rialto Bridge during our walk back...

AJ still sleeping....he didn't wake up until we stopped at a little place for some dinner....

Creative meat marketing / packaging....

Some love birds...

Beautiful city, beautiful day.

Til next time, God bless.

Other Birthday Cards...

Sweet
Authentic
Resourceful
Athletic
Helps others

HAPPY BIRTHDAY S!!!!

The other "3 Country Birthday" post:  http://tsfga.blogspot.it/2013/06/austria-vienna-hungary-slovakia-rachels.html