* A side story should be inserted here to explain the special relationship Edelweiss workers have with the "Hertz Guy". Hertz Guy is a German man who works for the American owned company in Europe, magically his parents live in Hilton Head, SC! He used to live in GA and SC before returning to his homeland of Bavaria; however, he is the sassiest Germ I have ever met. With a bone dry sense of humor he rents cars at American Military prices to the young un-inocent employees of the hotel. His rules include, no laughing in his office and no chocolate in his cars (we break these rules on a regular basis). When Heather and I went to check on car prices for the three day trip to Venice, he laughed in our faces at our request for an automatic vehicle, then pointed out that he knew I could drive a manual if need be. He was clueless to the fact that I was an amateur at best and had yet to go on a trip where I was the sole manual driver. But of course, in my usual Jackie Ness' daughter fashion, I took one for the team and said, FINE, book it. So with fingers crossed for a good clutch, Heather and I picked up the car.
So, with only a few minor stall outs in the first minutes of take off, Corinne got her Groove Back. I kicked some major automatic car bumper. The drive to Venice was one that I had made before our last trip to Florence with Sean and Andrew (crazy Andrew). It was beautiful with fabulous castle views, mountain side housing, and never ending tunnels. Heather documented our journey with snap shots of the country side, it was a perfect setting for the two of us to reconnect. As many of you know and understand, March wasn't shaping up to be my best month, I was going through the 5 month funk. Heather, bless her heart, listened when I needed her to, and helped me to realize that this experience is priceless- even if the price of missing you all is shaping up to be very high. After our five and a half hour drive, we arrived in round-about that was supposed to lead us to our destination...
we went around the round-about 5 times trying to decide which exit the directions were talking about.
This began the hilarity that was our Marghera vacation with The Godfather. We had booked a hotel with a three bed room and en-suite bathroom for two nights in the small town of Marghera, just a twenty minute bus ride to the main bus station of Venice. Upon stumbling upon our hotel, we quickly realized the town of Maghera had a bit to be desired; however, our opinion of this wonderful place would quickly change. The three of us settled our baggage in the hotel room after trying to translate Italian to English with the ancient front desk attendant. At around 10pm we set out for a "Gol' DARN" Italian pizza and some liters of wine... this would lead to the greatest find of our three day stay.
Down the street from our hotel sat a little Italian restaurant that served pizza and wine until midnight, we entered with squeals of delight and proceeded to split the most delicious carbonara pizza in the world (to date), a liter of draft wine, tiramisu, and cappuccinos delivered by our beautiful italian server. Our special friend, as I like to call our server, spoke wonderful English and happened to have an "I love New York" tattoo on the back of his neck (did I mention it was true love?). With our bellies and hearts full we headed back to the hotel a little past midnight. It was noted that there was a group of 20-30 something year-old Italian men standing outside the Autostrada Hotel and Bar that was situated across the street from our accommodations; making jokes to each other about Rachel and I finding our true men there (even though my heart and head were full of tattoo boy). As responsible adult females, we headed to the lighted side of the street and into the secure back entrance of our hotel and off to bed with thoughts of the adventures to come.
We woke up the next morning and had a delicious pre-packaged breakfast courtesy of our hotel owners with a big steaming hot cup of house-prepared cappuccino (heartwarmingly delicious stuff). With one final attempt at communicating how best to get to Venice with the hotel owners we charged forth into the Italian city to find a bus number 6. The fates were on our side this entire trip when it came to directions because we safely and easily discovered our stop and hopped on the bus for a fantastically short 20 minute ride to the city island of Venice. The main transportation hub was abuzz with activity and what I would come to realize was our first experience with over-crowding of tourist masses with no interaction from the local community. Venice was like a big beautiful live theatre, no one really lives a normal life there, it is all just a display for the mass crowds of tourist who feel the need to visit this amazing but over priced city each year. While eating a grandly lame lunch at a place suggested by a man at the Best Western Hotel (which was the only place we could find to ask, says enough about the place), we counted the tourist through the window, at least 20 to every 1 person who even looked slightly local or Italian in general. I don't mean to downplay the fabulous city that holds the most spectacular display of intricate art created in mass quantity (Doge's Palace) as well the largest mosaics (St. Mark's Basilica) BUT, I mean come on, a souvenir shop on every corner and dotting every street is a bit much. This all being said, I wouldn't have missed the Grand Canal ride on the public water taxi transport for anything. The sun was setting as we began our trip back to the transportation hub on the island and we were lucky enough to snag rail side standing room, perfect for the artful photos taken by Heather.
After one last look around the transportation station, we caught the number 6 bus back to our hotel, with a few stops trying to find wine for our chill evening at the hotel. We had already decided that we would be going back to the Mom and Pop's place we visited the night before, expect this time we would get the pasta dishes that we missed the night before due to our late arrival. With no wine in hands and puzzled about how we were in Italy and wine wasn't pouring forth from the water fountains, we made one last ditch effort by heading to the Autostrada Hotel and Bar that was previously mentioned (lots of men). A man we now think of as the Godfather greeted us with open arms, shouting "MY LADIES, MY LADIES" how may I serve you? With a quick exchange of glances, Rachel, Heather and I agreed this was going to be the best decision we had made yet. And sure enough, we asked for wine to-go and our Godfather thought for a second before disappearing behind the bar to come back with an empty leader water bottle which he proceeded to fill with classy draft wine. Three plastic cups and eight euro later, we were well on our way to being in love with the Godfather. He told us not to go to Venice after drinking his liter of wine, but to stay in our hotel and have a nice night. Too dangerous on the island for his ladies, is what he was saying, we quite agreed. At this point we headed home to change before dinner and partake in a glass of wine.
The meal that followed is still my favorite meal I've had in Italy (yes, even after the AMAZING trip to Dante's in Florence)...sorry. Rachel chose a delicious pizza, Heather had the four cheese penne, and I went with the huge slab of lasagna, the combination of the three items, warm Italian bread, fresh olive oil and cappuccino were too good to be true. These guys know how to make three American girls happy. A cup of gelato followed at another Mom and Pop's place down from our hotel, then it was off to see the Godfather for one more glass of wine before going to get some beauty sleep. Turns out the love we felt for the Godfather was mutual, he greeted us with a glass of wine on the house and protection from any man who would dare approach his ladies. Giggling out the door we once again returned to hotel room safely. The next morning we awoke to head back to Venice for the fresh fish, fruit, vegetable, and flower market that is held each morning. The Market was amazing, I will be sharing photos of this as soon as I can get them uploaded. HUGE fish everywhere, sun dried tomatoes, fresh veggies I have never even seen before, as well as olives out the wazzooo! With only a slight snaggle with needing to find a bathroom (I growled), the second day in Venice was as perfect as could be. We headed back to the car around 1pm in order to make the five and a half out drive back to Garmisch before the sunset in order to get better pictures of the country side. It was a successful drive home with no big mishaps and plenty of epic car pictures of castles.
Heather had to leave the next day, and she is greatly missed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen! With only four days to prepare for my birthday and the arrival of Katie Beth, I was in dire need of sleep!
I hope you got sleep in between Heather and Katie because I know you haven't slept with Katie there. I hope your April is much easier than your March. By the way, happy 23! Love you, Aunt Jean
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