travelenvelope: May 19 Venice

See the World for Free

The idea here is to TRAVEL THE WORLD regardless of time or budget. It dawned on me one day that even if I had unlimited time and money (which I definitley do not), I still couldn't see everything in the world that I'd like to see--I'm simply not going to live long enough to do it.

But I had a bit of brain wave and soon after the travel envelope was born. This is an actual physical envelope. I typed the name of every country in the world, plus every state in the US on little slips of paper which I then put into the envelope. In the beginning we (myself, my husband, Dave and daugher Catherine) would draw out a slip at random at the beginning of the month and that's where we would go---at least in our minds. We grab some books about the country from the library and put them in our bathroom to look at. We also check out some videos about the country if any. We check it out on googleearth, listen to the music, try the food, maybe even attempt to learn a dance or celebrate a festival.

After the first two years we discovered that even virtual traveling can be tiring, so we travel now whenever I happen to be in the mood.

It's great fun. I especially love it when people I meet have been to the place I'm "visiting" in real life, or get excited and have some virtual adventures of their own. I hope that anyone who comes across this blog will feel welcome to come with us on the trip!

You have a standing reservation to see it all!

May 19, 2015

May 19 Venice

The first text we got today was of a plate of spaghetti. Very appropriate!

It looks to have been an amazing day. I'm not sure of the order of things, but she got to see St. Mark's square.

And see the Doge's Palace--the Doge was the supreme authority of Venice for many centuries. I can never get over the sheer--mind-blowing opulence of places like this!

The palace is connected to the prison by the famous Bridge of Sighs. Built in 1600's the idea was that prisoners would sigh as they took in their last glimpse of beautiful Venice.

And go to the Jewish Ghetto, which apparently is run mostly by American Hassidic Jews these days. But she got to eat a kosher dinner. Which included sever courses--the most important of which, to my mind was the cookie course.

She got to visit the "Harry Bar" that Hemingway wrote about. Alas, my English degree failed me here. Never heard of it, but she said they served the best hot chocolate ever (and Catherine is a real expert) and I understand that.