Hi friends — welcome to our 48 hours in Venice!
Look, here’s the thing about amazing Venice. Every single place is fantastic. So I literally took no notes of names. Not for restaurants. Not for shops. Not for drinks. Any and everywhere you eat or go here will be … fantastic.
Chris and I were so happy to have this time in Venice, not only because the grandparents were here to help give us some time alone, but because the last time we were here it was for one night, and our experience was very different. We had the best time this trip around. Here’s a bit of what we saw and did …
Venice, thank you for putting on a show for us. We loved every second of it. (P.S. Can’t recommend our Airbnb enough. It was totally in the heart of things, but also so solitary and quiet. Perfect for both things.)
After we checked out of our Airbnb we took another water taxi to our rental car and drove three hours to .. the Dolomites! We’re here now, and it is so incredibly gorgeous. As I always say, I can’t wait to explore. Until then, friends … bis bald!
^^^ The Silver Pavilion inside Ginkaku-ji
^^^ An artist making the most of Philosopher’s Walk
^^ This (not so) little guy is a land iguana. We came across another one later in our hike that walked a good 100 feet towards our group of 16, bobbing his head in warning the whole while, before getting a couple of feet in front of us and turning around. I think he made his point, though 😉 Land iguanas are pretty territorial, but they’re also pretty harmless.
^^ Pink flamingo!! Look at this scenery — does it not look like another planet?
^^ Clawless lobsters at the fish markets in Puerto Ayora.
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^^ The site of one of our many, many snorkel adventures.
^^ Who doesn’t love a good petting zoo?
^^ The 2014 corn maze is up at Wagner’s right now and I thought … “What the heck? It can’t be that hard, right?” WRONG. I am seriously directionally challenged, my friends. Lucky for me a group of elementary school kids were tackling the maze and I followed them out of the thing. (Not without lots of confused looks and questions, though.) And a big shout out to my husband for trying to help me find the way out of the maze, from all the way back in Manhattan, using Google maps 🙂 I’m not sure if that’s cool or creepy …
^^ The end of the maze led you out to a cute little pumpkin patch.
^^ The house Margherita is anything but ordinary.
^^ They even bottle personal tequila for patrons who can purchase it at the restaurant and keep it there for any time they come in.
^^ Oh, and by the way, a warehouse in the back makes 25,000 cans of salsa each day to distribute. This is their special version specifically for Balloon Fiesta weekend.
^^ And here was my tequila tasting. All in a day’s work, friends, all in a day’s work.
^^ After lunch I was taken to the back to see the warehouse and the garden, where the restaurant is starting to try to grown some of the foods that they’ll later prepare.
^^ Dessert was the restaurant’s version of a tiramisu, called Levante. It’s made with 
^^ While Goodman originally envisioned this room directly across from the restaurant to be open as a sort of nightclub to the general public, he quickly realized that the general public didn’t necessarily mesh well with the upscale clientele staying at the hotel, and so now only private, ticketed events happen here.
^^ I know this isn’t the greatest photo, but please stick with me here. So one of the hotel staff currently working at Andaluz actually has worked at this hotel ever since it first opened its doors. When Goodman purchased the hotel in ’05, he turned to this staffer to learn more about what the place was like back in its heyday. During one of these conversations, he learned about a mural — this mural– that had been painted on one of the main walls as you enter the hotel and that had since been painted over. So he commissioned an artist to recreate the original painting from old photos. This is exactly as the photo was back when the hotel first opened, with the one small exception of the third figure’s ankle, which is slightly off the ground. The artist did this to leave his mark on his work, but otherwise the painting is an exact replica.
^^ These casbahs can be rented out and hotel guests can have dinner and drinks in them privately.
^^ So this wooden structure — which is actually much larger than this photo lets on — was originally commissioned to hang in the elevators, but didn’t pass fire code. So the panels were quickly removed and sent to the basement, where they spent many years until they were moved up to the main lobby for all to enjoy.
^^ So I know this might seem like a mistaken photo of the floor, but it’s actually seriously cool! So back in the days when the hotel first opened, the reception area used to be where the casbahs are now situated. The bellman would stand in this one spot, because he had the perfect vantage point to see guests coming in from both entrances. And for this reason alone, that very spot is actually worn out in certain spots, and when you stand on it, you can feel the dipping where the bellman’s standing has worn out the tile. That’s pretty incredible, is it not?
