When deciding how to get to Venice from Augsburg you have two choices: train or plane. The plane although quicker is more stressful due to the waiting, shuffling around, did my luggage arrive, etc. The train, cheaper, is very scenic, going through Austria and Northern Italy, passing by bare vineyards and snowy capped mountains.
We took the train.
Our 6 hour train ride to Verona was uneventful other than watching the scenery and when we got to Verona, we decided to go the quick way to Venice, upgrading our tickets a bit. However, this required us to wait 40 minutes longer to arrive in Venice 50 minutes early than the slow, cheap train. Weird, but how it works. We stood out in the Verona sunshine and basked in the warmth. By the time we got to the platform, the train was already 15 minutes late coming from Milan and we were reminded why German trains are so extraordinary…they are almost never late.
Finally on the train we settled down and watched the array of brightly colored houses, factories and stone churches pass by the window. Once we got to the transportation bridge that leads to Venice, the train slowed to a crawl, the temperature dropped and we could finally smell the sea.
I’d like to say my first glimpse of Venice was “magical”, but it wasn’t. It was of the car park next to the train station and even upon walking out of the train station we were greeted by a massive advertisement that covered the whole façade of a building. We made our way through a gaggle of junk shops and tourists traps coming to the Guglie bridge. While the crowd went right toward the St. Mark’s Square, we went left and immediately the crowds and noise disappeared.
This was finally Venice. The canal on our left, we strolled down the Fondamenta watching the vaporetti make their stops. The Tre Archi bridge in the distance, we finally found our alley and made our way toward the apartment we would call home.
Casa Bastello completely exceeded my expectations. The apartment itself is a lovely two-story place with two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom. Jonathan and Alasdair, the owners and proprietors of the place, are from the UK and are amazing. Upon arriving, there was a handwritten note to me that was personalized, hoping I had a safe journey from Augsburg and that if I needed anything to call their cell phone number. Wow.
The surprises kept coming. There was an entire bookshelf of Venice guide books, Italian phrase books, fiction and non fiction about Venice and even cookbooks! There was a user’s guide detailing how to use everything in the apartment, including a spreadsheet of what bulb to use for what lamp and a listing of doctors and dentists in town they recommend.
There are gorgeous touches around the whole place. The door itself is a decorative metal grate and is backed in thick, beveled yellow glass. There is a blue glass chandelier in Christine’s room. When you keep walking down our alley way you have to be careful because it dead ends in a canal! When Christine first peaked her head around the corner, there was a man alighting from his boat by swinging himself up into his doorway.
We quickly settled in and started reading through the books in the shelf and finally decided to go out and shop for Sunday morning. We came to the small local grocers and bought some cheeses and prosciutto along with some backup pasta and sauce. Between the two of us, we managed to speak Spanish-laced Italian and make our point known.
Because we are staying in Venice’s Ghetto, the original European ghetto, we walked past all the kosher restaurants to the local bakery. All the bread was gone but we bought slices of sweets and we were so excited about successfully using Italian, we forgot our purchase on the counter.
Our next stop was quite extraordinary, however. It was the wine shop. Now, I’m not a big wine drinker at all, but when in Venice, it’s nice to try the local specialities. The wine shop was incredibly small and although they did sell bottles of wine and other liquors such as limoncello, their specialty was their huge wine casks that had big tubes coming from them. You could bring your own empty water bottle (or they would provide one for you) and they fill it with the wine of your choice.
The elderly couple running the place was lovely and quickly figured out we spoke English. While we were tasting a few varieties of red, the man jokingly said, “Sprechen Sie Deutsch?” to which we replied, “Ja, ein bisschen.” I explained where we were from (UK and US) and where we lived(Germany). The woman asked where in Germany.
Now Christine was looking at the man when she said, “Augsburg” and only heard the violent gasp from her right, but I was looking at the woman to see how she grabbed her heart and her face dropped into shock. Turns out this woman was German, from a small spa town near Augsburg and had lived in Augsburg herself for many years. Her husband is Italian and they would often meet halfway when they first knew each other. The woman began chatting with Christine wildly in German and suddenly we were almost family. Four samples and 30 minutes later, we made it out of the shop and walked down the canal as the last lights of twilight were fading behind the houses along the canal. The boat lights sparkled on the canal and the smell of the sea, one I have dearly missed, was carried by the cool breeze. We passed another kosher restaurant where a large table of Jewish men in full dress and hats were sitting down to dinner and enjoying each others company.
Our evening ended with some cheese, prosciutto and biscuits and conversations on the couch before heading to bed in the deep silence of the alley.
How wonderful!
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