New Years- Italian Style

Happy New Year! Buon Anno!

Welcome to 2010! Benvenuti al 2010!

For New Years we decided to head south to bring in the new year in a more romantic locale. How about Venice? Perfect.

So, we had an early morning flight from Frankfurt on December 31st to Milan, Italy. In Milan, we jumped on a train and took the 3 hour train ride along the southern Alps to Venice. We weren't the only ones to have this idea, as the train to Venice was packed, but luckily I had booked us a room for two nights in Venice and then one night in Milan.

As we got off of the train in Venice and made our way to the boat to head to our hotel, Shea and I quickly noticed that many people were walking around in waders...weird fashion statement we thought, but hey their Italians, they know fashion, right? We made our way to our bed and breakfast, which was only a two minute walk from the famous Piazza San Marco. As we checked in, excited about the concert in the Piazza that night and being in such a wonderful location, our hotel owner told us we timed our trip perfectly for the flood that was coming in that night at 11:00 with high tide.

Oh man, time for Shea and I to jump on the Italian-wader-fashion bandwagon!

So, we headed out into the city and did a bit of sightseeing around Piazza San Marco. We found out that the concert was still to take place, so we went to invest in a few items...1) some bottles of wine 2) two sets of waders.

Problem was that waders were running at a premium, as every tourist in town was in the market for them, so we went with the heavy grade trash bag glued into a plastic sandal waterproofing-system instead.

We were impressed with the city. Even though it was cold and rainy (and ready to flood) the city had a certain romantic charm that was unlike anywhere else we had been. The canals, gondolas, beautiful churches, gelatto, and wine create a wonderfully romantic environment to bring in 2010.

After some sightseeing, we headed back to the hotel room to dry out before heading back out at 10:30 to celebrate with everyone.
At 10:30, we headed over to Piazza San Marco and found a place to put on our waders. We then ventured out to the one of the higher points in the Piazza and danced our wet way into the new year with several thousand of our new closest friends.

The next morning after properly drying out our shoes (the heavy weight trashbag waterproofing-system finally gave out to the floodwaters and dancing near the end) we enjoyed some breakfast and waited for the tide to roll out about 11:30am. Once it did we were high and dry for the rest of the day. We toured the inside of St. Marco's, visited Doge's Palace, Gallerie del Accademia, St. Maria Del Salute, and Campo St. Stefano. We loved just slowly wandering through the sidewalks and taking in the canals and beautiful scenery. We had a nice long meal that night that included several courses and acted as a nice end to the first day of the new year.

The next morning we woke up and packed our bags to head to Milan. We were treated to a nice tour of the city via our boat ride through the Grande Canal to the train station to catch our 12:50 train to Milan.

In Milan, we checked into the hotel and then headed back downtown to the famous Duomo Cathedral. Our timing couldn't have been better as we arrived just as the sun was going down, and we were able to take in the beautiful cathedral in the darkening blue twilight. The stained glass windows shown brightly and gave the cathedral life (see photo above). We walked inside and noticed it was 5:28, and that 5:30 Mass was about to get underway. We acted liked we belonged and took some seats in the pews to take in mass in the 4th largest cathedral in the world. After Mass, we walked through some of the famous shopping areas adjacent to the Cathedral. We found a restaurant to eat in and had some good pizza and pasta.

On, Sunday we checked out and deposited our bags at the train station, where we would pick up our bus to the airport. We headed back to the center of the city and toured through the Duomo in the light. We then headed over and toured the Castello Sforzesco (Castle Sforzeco) and happened upon a winter festival, complete with bunny hills for skiing. We left the castle and walked down the main shopping street to the famous La Scala Opera house and Galleria Emanuele II. Unfortunately, the museum housing Leonardo's "the Last Supper" was closed the entire month of January, so we were unable to see it, but we were able to head over to the mecca of shopping in the Via Montenapoleone fashion district. Shea window shopped through all the major fashion designers of the world, and I felt happy to not have to keep up with these Jones's. We found a local market and before heading back to the train station, we enjoyed a Cannoli and our last few minutes of Italy. All in all, it made for a wonderfully memorable New Year's celebration...flooding and all.