The hotel neighborhood I started dreading turning 40 just days after my 39th birthday.  I know that everyone dreads turning another decade older and 40 is a hard one for most.  But for me there is the extra weight of knowing that a family on this earth becomes an even more remote possibility at 40 than it already has been.  So in order for me to cope with that day, Lee and I decided to take an epic vacation and to do something that we couldn't have done with kids.   We debated about what to do and where to go for months.  And finally, in January I had the revelation of where I wanted to be and what I wanted to be doing.  I wanted to be in my favorite country, speaking my favorite language and eating my favorite foods.  AND I also wanted to do two of my bucket list items for that country.    The decision - three weeks in Italy including 9 days on the Alta Via 1 (hut to hut hiking in the Dolomites) and a week on the beaches of Sardegna.  Dreamy! The trip was everything we could of asked for, and more.

La Fenice Opera House Our vacation kicked off with two nights in Venice.  While I highly discourage travel to Italy in the months of July and August, my birthday necessitated our travel during the most heavily touristed time of year.  But we found a fabulous little hotel at the intersection of the Santa Croce, Dorsoduro and San Polo districts of Venice.  It was far away from the hub of the tourist activity and near what undoubtedly is one of the best gelato shops I have ever had!  We stayed at Hotel Al Sole in a room overlooking the canal (we can thank my "good speaking discount" as Lee calls it for that free upgrade!) and it was so very lovely.   

Our night out at La Fenice

We arrived in Venice on Sunday, June 28 after a long day and night of traveling and were so lucky that the hotel had our room ready for us at 11am in the morning.  We got to shower and get refreshed before wandering the streets of Venice.  Since we had been there before, we didn't really have much of an agenda.  We just wandered.  We returned to a restaurant we had loved a few years ago and avoided the tourists as much as possible.  That evening we got all dressed up and went to listen to the symphony's performance of Vivaldi at the Fenice Opera House.  It was such an enjoyable and fun experience - especially being able to sit in a little box overlooking the theatre.  After the concert we enjoyed the warm summer night walking around until we found a pizza joint open at that late hour for dinner.  Torcello

The only thing we knew we wanted to do during our brief stop in Venice was go out to Murano to watch a demonstration of glass blowing.  We somehow managed to miss that our last trip and were determined to catch it this time.  Our awesome hotel offered a free taxi out to Murano and access to a pretty impressive "fornace".  The demo was short and then we did a little wandering, a little shopping (again my good speaker discount was lucrative) and then caught the Vaporetto out to Torcello, another of Venice's islands.   The ferry we took back to Venice landed us at Fondamente Nove and we had a great time wandering and eating our way through Cannaregio.  We found the most delicious pastry shop and made it our late lunch and then returned for seconds so we could have treats on the bus the following day.   As we made our way back to our hotel (jet lag was catching up to us) we stopped in at the Basilica dei Frari, shopped and discovered Il Doge (the best gelateria ever)!

Our final evening was low-key.  We attempted to eat at a couple of recommended restaurants that were closed and ended up somewhere that was marginal - although the ambiance was wonderful.  We soaked in Dorsoduro, went back for MORE gelato at il Doge at the fun little Campo Santa Margherita and packed up for our departure the following morning.  All in all, a great couple of days. 

View out our window at the Hotel al Sole

Photos of those two days are in the gallery.