Cindybelle's Bella Notte TR COMPLETE!! - UPDATED 10/19 With Prices!
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**cindybelle** · 10-09-2009, 05:14 PM

Here's the outdoor patio where we enjoyed the Hotel San Barnaba's breakfast on Friday and Saturday morning. I shot this from our bedroom window.

Notice the sculpted head in the top of that photo? That's of the original owner of the building, a duke or somesuch.

From the dining room into the patio:

A nice breakfast spread, too -- all you care to eat. Which you would think would have been "not much" after all the food we consumed Thursday and Friday nights at Al Profeta -- but no! We ate it all!

On the far right of the table below is the prosciutto and cheese plate that we were certainly accustomed to seeing by this point of the trip.

Here's a closer look at the curved door that opened to our room door. Pretty

detail, don't you think?

Even the stairwells had interesting details.

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lauriep · 10-09-2009, 08:17 PM

Absolutely beautiful. And another gem of a hotel.

SuperDave · 10-09-2009, 08:44 PM

Love the photos Cindy. Keep them coming. Lot of great fish dishes in Venezia too, for obvious reasons. Hope you had some!

The name of the penzione I stayed at near the Rialto Bridge was Albergo Guerrato.

Venice is also famous for their Baccari (bars) which serve (ciccetti) little munchies and cheap but good wine. Basically would be like a tapas bar. Doing a little pub crawl from bar to bar with some wine and lots of good appetizers and you can make an evening and a dinner out of this. It's a lot of fun. Many of these establishments are located in Venezia. A good area is near the Rialto area.

Cross the Rialto Bridge on the opposite side of San Marco (although it's not in that area). Once you cross, take a left and there are a number of narrow streets with many baccari here. I actually took a pub crawl tour of Venezia on my first night here in 2006. Well, I over did it a bit as being somewhat jetlagged, but more than anything else I had too much wine.

But I had a great time, with ciccetti magnifico and vino buono. The tour is run by a friend of Rick Steves, who has been featured before on his programs. His name is Alessandro and the info on these tours can be found in Rick Steves Italy guide. He took us to a number of these baccari where the food and wine varied, but they were all good. I highly recommend the tour.

Just curious, but where in Venezia was your hotel located? Looks like some where on the Grand Canal, but I can't figure out where. Although, the area looks very familiar. What else is near your hotel?

Keep the Venezia highlights coming!

**DrDolphin** · 10-09-2009, 09:26 PM

Wonderful updates Cindy!! Your hotel in Venice looked wonderful - and the tour of the Doge's Palace was great.

**cindybelle** · 10-10-2009, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuperDave

Just curious, but where in Venezia was your hotel located? Looks like some where on the Grand Canal, but I can't figure out where. Although, the area looks very familiar. What else is near your hotel?

Keep the Venezia highlights coming!

Dave, the Locanda San Barnaba is near Ca' Rezzonico and Ca' San Sebastiano, if that helps you any! It's in the Dorsoduro area. If you follow the main canal from west to east, it dips pretty far south a little over halfway to the eastern end -- that's where our hotel is.

Here's Rick's photo of the Church of San Barnaba -- this was a backdrop for a scene in the Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade movie. Maybe this will help.

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SuperDave · 10-10-2009, 04:39 PM

Am definitely familiar with the area. It's basically between San Marco and Rialto where I stayed. Thanks.

PrincessSharon · 10-11-2009, 09:59 AM

Oh my, Venezia is lovely!

skateycat · 10-11-2009, 12:32 PM

and of course we will have to go visit the pinnochio statue in st louis next trip, correct?
i am chuckling at the names of all the streets. since i live in venice, florida....guess what? we have street with all the ones you are naming....san marco, rialto, venezia, firenze...etc. now i know where the names come from!

pamcarey · 10-11-2009, 02:58 PM

Wow! So many fabulous photos of Venezia!! I simply must visit Italy someday!

**cindybelle** · 10-12-2009, 04:10 PM

This was taken around 6:30pm.

As we bounced along on our water bus, Paul snapped this photo of a fellow just chillin'.

Churcha-churcha! St. Mark's.

How do they handle construction projects in Venice? The same way they conduct all kinds of business -- by boat!

We loved this floating produce market, which was near our hotel.

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**cindybelle** · 10-12-2009, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skateycat

and of course we will have to go visit the pinnochio statue in st louis next trip, correct?
i am chuckling at the names of all the streets. since i live in venice, florida....guess what? we have street with all the ones you are naming....san marco, rialto, venezia, firenze...etc. now i know where the names come from!

Sheri, you'd better believe we'll go visit St. Louis' big Pinocchio statue the next time you're in town! Here's hoping the weather won't be as

as it was last time!

And I'm glad you're discovering the origin of all your local street names. . . . aren't the PassPorter boards informative?

**cindybelle** · 10-12-2009, 04:36 PM

Paul and Robbie were both exhausted by 4:00 p.m. Friday, and Robbie was coming down with a doozy of a cold. So the four of us went back to the hotel for some needed rest. (We know Paul

for at least an hour.) At 4:30 p.m., Rick and I set out on foot to see how far & how difficult it would be for us all to walk to the cab/bus area the next morning with all our luggage -- rather than pay the 90 Euros

for a water taxi.

It turns out we only had about a 20-minute walk. And we were rewarded by getting to view and walk on the new Calatrava bridge, which is justifiably controversial among Venetians. I adore Santiago Calatrava's work elsewhere, and I do like the sleek look of this bridge -- but it does look jarringly modern amidst all of Venice's crumbling ruins. Most of all, walking on it is DIFFICULT -- I tripped, and a few minutes later, Rick tripped -- because to achieve the sleek look, the steps vary in height and depth.

But still, it's pretty

to look at. Here it is:

We also got to see how they move luggage from water taxis to the taxi/bus area:

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**cindybelle** · 10-12-2009, 04:55 PM

Rick Steves recommends "getting lost" in Venice.

Well, that was no problem for my Rick and me -- because while we found our way from the hotel TO the taxi/bus area with no problem, after we turned around to retrace our steps we must have taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque because all of a sudden we were

and ended up "lost."

I didn't mind, even though our feet and legs were t-i-r-e-d after the long day, because we only had a few more hours of daylight in which to enjoy Venice. We would certainly have enough time for "sitting" on our three plane rides home the next day.

Rick admitted later that he actually thought we'd NEVER find our way back to the hotel -- he did the very unmanly

thing of finally approaching a bus boy who was setting tables for dinner. Rick presented our map and grandly gestured over the entire thing. "We are so lost, we don't have any idea where we are."

The bus boy laughed and immediately pointed to Piazza Frari on the map -- which I knew was correct, because we were standing right next to Frari churcha-churcha at that moment, but we sure couldn't find it on the map.

We'd left the Locanda San Barnaba at 4:30 p.m. and returned a little after 6:00 p.m. -- you do the math

. Then we went upstairs and woke up Paul, and the four of us walked back to the taxi/bus area and back again -- because by this point, even I wanted to prove we could do it!

The entire time Rick and I were "lost," I was happily taking more photos.

Most of the bridges have about 10 steps going up and roughly the same number going down on the other side of the canal, so even with luggage it's very

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I love architectural details like these, don't you?

We all felt we'd earned our last dinner at Al Profeta -- and shared even more wine than we had the night before. We toasted our final evening in Italia.

Then it was off to bed.
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**cindybelle** · 10-12-2009, 05:49 PM

OK, students, here's my list of suggestions for when you take YOUR big trip to Italy. So

on.

1. Plan it like you plan a trip to WDW. Get everybody's "must see" and "would like to see" lists. Then look at the length of time you'll have in Italy, and make some tough decisions. Just like at WDW, you can't possibly do it all. That's

-- no matter the length of your stay, you will have a

time.

2. Pack light. Rick Steves is right -- in fact, my real #2 is to buy his books on Italy -- he has one big one on the entire country and separate volumes on Rome, Florence (which includes Pisa and other cities in Tuscany), and Venice. I bought 'em all and haven't regretted it once. But I digress. I packed 5 shirts, 2 pairs of black trousers, enough panties and socks for the entire trip (Rick didn't do that, and discovered that his underwear and socks needed two days to dry

which is OK if you've got two days between journeys, but let's just say on the train ride from Roma to Firenze he felt a bit refreshed

.) Both Rick and I wore black walking shoes and didn't pack any others -- and that worked great for us. We took clothes that we knew we could wash out in a sink and drip dry -- in fact, I "practiced" at home on some outfits before packing them.

3. As soon as you know when you want to travel, book the hotels. I booked ours in January, even though we didn't commit any $$$ until we purchased the airline tickets in June. Glad we did. Offer to pay cash and you'll save money. Ask if the hotel provides hair dryers -- all three of our hotels did, so no one but me brought an electrical converter (and that was for my small fan that I used the 3 nights we were in Rome -- I didn't need it in the other cities).

4. I cannot recommend highly enough the B&B we enjoyed so much in Florence: Bed and Breakfast il Bargello It was a true home-away-from-home experience. They've only got 6 rooms, so book early. And tell them Cindy from Disney recommended them -- they'll be interested to know that. (And no, I'm not getting a kickback or anything.

) Be sure to ask for the Rick Steves cash discount -- we paid 109 Euros/night for five nights. And we still miss being there.

5. Have somebody in your group study the maps before you go. Thank goodness Rick enjoys doing that -- he really maneuvered us around (except for that final afternoon in Venice, which I'll always enjoy having to hold over his head

). When you plan your loose itineraries (don't squeeze in too much each day), work them out with a map so you can make the best use of your walking time and/or taxi fares.

6. Note when your "must see" activities are closed. That includes noting any local festivals/holidays that might add to the # of tourists present. We chose Monday as the day to go to Pisa because so many of the Florence museums are closed on Mondays. If you really want to see the pope in Roma, you'll want to go to St. Peter's on Wednesday or Sunday -- but if that isn't a priority for you, you'll want to go on a different day. (Just like working around EMH at WDW

) In Rome, pre-purchase tickets for the Vatican Museum, no matter what time of year you're going. If you'll be traveling in high tourist season, you may want to pre-purchase tickets to other venues as well. In Florence, if you don't pre-purchase before leaving home, at least ask your hotel to get you reservations for the Accademia and the Uffizi. (And you simply MUST go to both of those if you're an art lover. The Accademia primarily to see Michelangelo's David and Prisoners and the Uffizi for 2-3 hours of pure art-lovers heaven.) In Venice, we had pre-purchased tickets for the Doge's Palace Secret Itineraries Tour, but we probably didn't need them -- that line didn't seem terribly long. But then again, if you know you want to go and you know WHEN you want to go, you might as well book in advance. At least, if you're a Type A personality like me.

7. Start saving your money a year or two in advance. I opened a savings account that I referred to as my "Italy Fund" a couple years ago, and put bonus money in there along with $50 or $100 every time I felt I could siphon it off of my checking account. By the time we paid for our airline tickets, I had more than enough in my account. All told, I spent $3,800 -- but that includes souvenirs along with all the entrance fees, cabs, trains, food, lodging, and air fare. Now, that's more than twice what I normally spend on vacation - but the memories I have (and the photos and journal entries, in case my noggin won't hold the memories all by itself

) are so worth it. But that's me -- you have to decide the $$$ you're comfortable with and figure out a way to stay within your budget. You can do it. And if you have lots of money, why don't you simply pay for me to go with you and plan your entire trip?

8. TripAdvisor as well as Rick Steves and other travel experts can steer you in the right direction on restaurants. Eating is important -- you need to decide how much you're willing to pay and what kind of dining experiences you want to have. We had two so-so dining experiences, but the rest were all great! Some were planned in advance, and others were happy accidents.

9. Go with some good friends that you've traveled with before. Italy is NOT the destination to "try out" a group trip. Even after two previous trips with Paul and Robbie, Rick and I were a bit worried that they'd hate us by the end of our 12-day journey together. But no problem -- they still

us. (Too bad for them, because now I'm counting on them to go to Germany and other countries with us in the future.)

10. Keep your money, credit cards, and your passports in a money belt. We did. We had no problem with pickpockets, but we were also sensible about using ATMs -- three of us would stand with our backs to the fourth who was using the machine.

11. If you arrive at the end of an overnight flight, commit to staying up that entire day. Yes, you'll be a zombie, but set a comfortable pace. You can stop to rest, to eat, etc. as often as you want to -- but don't nap. You'll sleep better that night and you'll wake up feeling like you're in the correct time zone.

12. Yes, the flights will be brutal: It's part of the deal, so just resign yourself to it. On the flight home -- which was a l-o-n-g day trip (I kept thinking the sun would set a lot sooner than it did

), I purposely kept myself awake by working on my journal. The best time to get all your experiences on paper is when you're trapped on a plane. Speaking of the return flights, we're so glad Rick recognized that our flight from Venezia to Philadelphia would arrive sooner than the reservationist had told us. After we got through Customs in Philly, rather than simply turning in our bags at the USAirways desk and waiting two hours for our next flight, he asked the attendant if we could possibly get on an earlier flight. We did -- which meant we didn't have time to eat a good meal, but we were all happy to get home a bit earlier that night. So be on the lookout for stuff like that. It could save you a couple hours in an airport.

13. Bring earplugs and a pillowcase from home -- they'll help you sleep. In my case, I also brought a small pillow that I could crunch down in one of those squeeze-the-air-out plastic bags (set of 4 from Target was pretty cheap). That way, no matter what kind of bed or linens you get, your face will be on something familiar. (We found the beds in all three of our hotels to be quite comfortable, by the way.)

Is there anything I wish we'd done differently? Not with the time constraints we had. But if we could go back for one more day in each city, here's what I would do:

ROMA: Spend another day at the Vatican Museum/St. Peter's Basilica, and take a tour. I'm not a bit sorry that we did it on our own in one day and feel satisfied with what we saw, but there's a lot of history there and it might be interesting to have a tour guide if you've got the time to spread the visit out over two days.

FIRENZE: Spend another day/evening on the rooftop terrace of B&B Il Bargello. That was heavenly! But I'd probably go back into Tuscany to spend at least part of a day in Siena or another city.

VENEZIA: Much as I enjoyed that city, there's really nothing else I would do there if I'd had another day.

I realize that as soon as I click on "submit reply," I'll think of a few dozen more words of wisdom. If you've got any questions for me, ask now while my brain is still in Italia, even if my body isn't!
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