San Marco and Pagentry

We got up at about 7:00 a.m.-- the church bells of Rome awakened me! We went down for a breakfast of cereal and juice as well as a couple of pastries with cheese or some packaged biscuits. I love the way they serve food in Europe. There is always linen on the table and always china --- no plastic. An older lady brought a pot of coffee to the table with a cream pitcher filled with frothy hot milk. After breakfast Matt and I went in search of an Internet connection which was reputed to be at a laundry...which we found open.. but the man who was there clearly didn't want to deal with us and told us the connection was next door -- which was a dry cleaners. The door was locked, however you could see him through an open door in the establishment -- they were one and the same! Her are some observations about Italy.
1)Many people are not interested in assisting you....which I translate to mean that they do not need tourists -- they have plenty. (Turkey and Egypt need tourists and they were very helpful and attentive.
2) If they don't want to deal with you they feign inability to understand any English.
3) If they want to appear to be helpful they are willing to supply you with information which may have no relation to reality.
4) The cab drivers are willing to drive you around many streets to give you an opportunity to see the city always for an interesting charge at the end. One even tried to charge us for the amount of luggage we had put in his boot.
The hotels we have had often do not conform to what Kathy specified. For instance here she over payed for the taxi because we were supposed to be close to the Piazza Navonna or the Campo di Fiori....however we discovered we were only two blocks from the train station. The hotels in Rome both have had small rooms in odd shapes. Probably because they are retrofitted older buildings. This is a clean nice hotel - Mariano on the Plaza --Manfredo. The area around the hotel is mostly inhabited by Asians and some arabs. Lots of graffiti suggests that this is not a great neighborhood -- which is why we waited until this morning to try for Internet. While we were on the way to the taxi last night one of the gay revellers tried to sit in Kathy's wheel chair --- he was drunk and she had her had in the chair giving Matt a break. The drunk gay guy gestured and spoke to her hat and then started to sit down while taking a sip from his bottle of beer. Matt hailed the taxi at just this moment -- which was nice for us! I will forever have the images of the goth Christ pulling a rock with mirrored cross and red bloody hands sticking out of the rock, and the Virgin Mary in Drag pulling his/her own cloud with a rainbow attached! This was not the image of the Piazza Navona I remember from the past but I think Matt thought this was GREAT FUN and probably enjoyed it more than he would have the old Piazza with just the fountains and beautiful Italian music on stringed instruments.
We walked to the train station and caught the train to Venice. Eurostar is quite nice. Much cleaner than TrenItalia. It is faster, more reliable, and air conditioned. We waited in the Eurostar lounge --- a frosted glass enclosure with comfortable seating in its waiting room and wi-fi sign. Unfortunately we are not dressed up (most Italians it seems dress really well) so one of the employees came over and asked to see our tickets. We proved we deserved to be there no matter how things looked! I tried to connect to the Wi-Fi and failed so I went back to the desk person and asked how to connect. They did not know --Internet has been frustrating. I have not been able to connect to unsecured networks --and very few places have it cheaply enough to connect.
The Plaza Hotel in Venice Maestre was directly across from the train station --- such a blessing --- no taxi worries and an easy walk. My arms are sore from wagging luggage about. We will have to figure out a way to send a lot of this stuff back with Matt when he leaves at the end of the week, as I don't think I can manage dragging my bag and pushing the chair at the same time --- we will have to experiment...but I have faith we will find a way. After depositing our luggage and washing up we caught the train into Venice --- found a water bus (there are water taxis which are smaller boats and then their are larger ones that stop a bit more frequently -- like a city bus.)
We crossed the two bridges (the second - the bridge of sighs) and were surprised to find one had a ramp---don't ask why only one bridge had a ramp -- but we were happy to see it. Well, maybe not Matt -- it was quite an incline. We passed the Ducal Palace (which had been cleaned since I was here last) and found the stone a beautiful pink, turned the corner and there was San Marco glittering in the sun. The gold leaf on the frescoes was especially beautiful. We found a cafe and had some gellato, parked Kathy on the square and Matt and I began our exploration and attempt to find a Pinocchio puppet. Sadly most of them were way beyond the limit of about $30 euro that Peggy(a teacher friend) had set.....then after a couple of hours of wondering we found a shop with the perfect Pinocchio at just exactly 30 euro -- but alas the store was closed --- It was after all Sunday! Tired and hot we finally found our way through the maze of streets and bridges back to the square and Kathy. She had successfully found what she was looking for and we went into a place to eat. I have yet to have a bad meal in Italy! I had a salad, cannelloni, and house wine -- which was quite good. Matt had the best Pizza of his life --- thanks to the fact that Kathy couldn't eat the whole one herself and Matt had a Risotto dish. As we sat in this restaurant with its flat screen T.V. blaring rock music I could hear first the bells of San Marco and then singing on the square. The church itself was closed, so Matt didn't get to see this most impressive structure from the inside, but they had set up an alter on the square earlier.
I left Matt and Kathy deep in discussion and went to the procession on the square. Today was Corpus Domini Day (I think) at any rate there was a fabulous parade with chant and many clerics dressed in beautiful garb followed by nuns and then the faithful --- censors broadcast incense and candles were carried aloft in the light of early evening---it was a most moving experience....and yes, DEAN I GOT THE BULLETIN-- I was moved to tears. We spent the rest of the evening finding a water bus back and then the proper train and this time we had reserved an assistant ahead to meet us at the train and escort us across the tracks. Unfortunately this hapless luggage handler had not had much experience with wheelchairs so Kathy was treated to an amusement ride over the tracks. (3 sets of three tracks each) and on the last track he fell under the chair but Matt was there to keep Kathy from going over onto him ---- it is amusing only in retrospect.... The Plaza Hotel is a 4 STAR and is beautiful. LARGE ROOMS....fabulous breakfast including lots of American foods and of course --- the standard linen and china....and lovely local eggs and fresh fruits.