Venice revisited

Tuesday 4th September Gigi and I were flying back to Naples with his mother. The wedding was over. The damage was done. It was time to go home. We were scheduled to fly from Venice at 8pm. We caught the 7.30 am train out of Udine (couldn’t get out of there fast enough) and arrived in Venice by 10am. We spent the day wandering around Venice, visiting the canals, bridges and piazzas, while Gi’s mother brought some glass souvenirs and we bought some masks. During one coffee and smoke break Rosa worked out, and then complained, that we’d been walking around for more than five hours. Her legs were completely finished. After collecting our left luggage we walked to get the bus to the airport, Rosa limping along slowly behind me while Gigi strode out in front carrying his mother’s luggage as well as his own. I felt like the rose between two thorns, having more patience and perhaps a little more compassion than Gigi. I think he expected her to say ‘you guys go off and look around on your own, while I sit here in the sun with access to coffee and cigarettes for a couple of hours’. She never did. Luckily we decided to get an early bus to the airport as the traffic was a nightmare. We checked in with plenty of time, went through security and then Gi’s mother decided she needed a cigarette. I’d already told them both there’d be no smoking on the other side, but no one ever believes me when I give advice or directions in Italy. Having discovered that there was indeed no smokers corner in an international airport she then had to go back out through security to have a fag out the front of the airport.

Of course, our flight was then delayed, due to weather problems in Naples. We watched with disbelief as they pushed the time out to 8.45pm, and even after 8.45 went by on the clock and 9.15 approached the board failed to show any updates. The 50 or so passengers stood in a ratty line at the gate for more than 40 minutes despite no call for boarding. I sat down watching them all, listening to my ipod. We finally arrived in Naples, after flying through some rain and bumpy clouds at about 11pm. Irene, unimpressed at having had to wait and having missed her dinner time, picked us up at the airport.

Venice was lovely, full of tourists of course but still a great place to poke around and photograph. The Bienniale Film festival was on so the news was full of famous film stars in Venice but it cost a bomb to attend any of the exhibitions and public transport is also really expensive in Venice so we just spent the day on foot. I had dreams of accidently bumping into Brad and Angelina, or at least George Clooney but it wasn't to be. Still I had a nice day despite my travelling companions, and take the attitude that I might as well enjoy it because it just might be the last time I get to visit such a unique city.

Pozzuolo pictures

Views from the backyard of the aunt's house where we stayed for the wedding trip last week.

Cousins at Play

Gigi, Marianna, Nicola, Caterina.

Gigi, Marianna, Jenny & Caterina.

Oh, yes that's poor 14 year old Marianna underneath my hand.

I swear she put her face there.

Now, should we play hide and seek?

New Orleans via Italy?

Spotted this sign at a tiny village festival while we were up north. Who knew it was just a matter of following the redirection signs to get to New Orleans?

The flight to Hell

Last Wednesday 29th Gigi and I travelled with his mother to attend a family wedding in Trieste. From Naples we had to fly into Venice.

In order to protect certain parties this is a story I wrote that is loosely based on recent events...read into that what you will.

The trip up north for the wedding was a mixed bag. I encouraged Gigi to go because it was his favourite childhood cousin getting married and because it’s perhaps the only time when we’ll be in the country for one of these affairs. Before we even caught the plane he was regretting the decision but by the end I think it was more good than bad. We have both decided never to travel with 'R' again though. It’s just too hard, and she’s so very different to us both, concerning her needs and likes. She is so incredibly unfit she is reluctant to walk very far at all. She’s on a special diet but Gi finds it very disappointing when she strays, which she did often while we were away. Her constant need to have a cigarette is another sticking point.

The flight up was a disaster. We had initially booked a flight departing Naples at 7.30am. 'R' was going to stay the night at our place and we’d catch a taxi to the airport. That would see us land in Venice by 9am and then we could look around a bit and catch a train at our leisure to Udine. The airline, Alpi Eagles, cancelled the morning flight and put us on a flight that night, leaving Naples at 10.45pm and arriving in Venice at 11.50pm. We called Gi’s cousin 'N' and asked if he could pick us up at the airport. He said he’d get back to us. He never did. Eventually his mother 'M' called 'R' and told her she couldn’t make it to the airport either. No real explanation why. So, we weren’t met at the airport. Gigi was furious, understandably. The thing is he’s become a bit accustomed to the Australian norm that is to drive two or three hundred kilometres as though it’s a quick trip to buy milk. I guess the trip from 'M'’s place to Venice airport is a bit over an hour if the traffic is okay. On my recnet trip to Germany my friend Esther’s dad drove further than that to pick Tom and I up from Dusseldorf. What is hard to understand is why there are complete strangers in the world who will go out of their way to do something like that and yet some family members are so self-absorbed they won’t even consider it.

So, we arrived at the airport at midnight and then managed to catch the last airport bus to Mestre train station (not the one in the centre of Venice). Then we managed to convince the driver of the next Eurocity train to make an unscheduled passenger stop in Udine on his way to Vienna. We boarded the train at 1.30 and arrived in Udine at 3am. Then we sat inside the station, under bright flouro lights, on hard seats, with all the drunks and homeless wandering around until 6am when I convinced Gigi’s mum it was a suitable time to call her lousy sister and ask her to drive the ten minutes to pick us up from the train station. She duly arrived at 6.50am. I slept briefly at the station until some strange man sat down next to me and scared me to death. I had my ipod on and I think he thought I was travelling alone. Gi’s mother managed to snore while sitting up. Gi of course stayed awake the whole night, on guard, protecting the luggage and his travelling companions. Now Gigi’s mother is no spring chicken, she’s 55 going on 65 so the whole night was not only difficult for us, but even worse because we were with his mother. They didn’t want to stay overnight in Venice because of the cost of accommodation in August and because the Bienniale Film festival was starting. I racked my brain for some other solution,but the reality was a miserable night, thanks to his selfish aunt who couldn’t sacrifice a couple of hours (we even offered to pay for the fuel). We were unable to change the tickets because it takes six weeks for a refund and we would have had to come up with more money to buy more expensive replacement tickets in the interim.

...there is a bit here that I've edited for privacy reasons...

Unfortunately I think the final outcome of the trip was the 'R' has decided to cut ties with her sister, and she certainly won’t be making a return trip north. She was there in February to help her sister during a bad patch, but 'M' hasn’t been to her home town of Naples for ages. In fact she almost despises the place. So, 'R' is now probably estranged from her two brothers and her sister potentially.

These people make my head spin sometimes!