Venice, Day 10

All right, so we spent the night on the train; actually a pretty nice way to travel if you have plenty of time on your hands (the train took about 14 hrs total, and the flight was just 2 ½ hrs); you get to sleep in a bed and you can change clothes and brush your teeth when you wake up.

We left Paris at 7pm on the 2nd, and got to Bologna at about 7am on the 3rd. Then, we had to wait in Bologna at the station until 9:45am for the train to Venice-Mestre. Eventually, we arrived at our station around 11:15am; ready to get off the train and take a shower at our hotel! Unfortunately, we had to find our car rental place…and of course they were not right at the station, so we had to walk about ½ mile dragging our suitcases….nice!

We got our car, a black Alpha Romeo five-door hatchback—nice little car, with a turbo diesel. The thing sips gas, (I drove around Mestre, to Venice, back to our hotel, to Florence, then to Rome and only used ½ of a tank.) and has plenty of power (thanks to the turbo); anyway, enough of that.

Needless to say, driving in a city where all the signs are in a language you do not speak is…..interesting :-). Also, a word of caution, do not waste your money on maps in Italy; they are pretty much pointless. If you want a map, buy one before you leave (and hope it is correct, as none of theirs are). Thankfully, they do have pretty good signs telling you where to go. So, we found our hotel (eventually :-D), and found out where a laundry mat was. I know, I know, laundry on vacation? Well, you try lugging around enough clothes for 17 days! :-) So, the laundry mat wasn’t where they said, and after looking for ½ hr or so, we gave up and headed back towards our hotel (we thought that’s where we were headed anyway). After getting extremely frustrated at the useless maps, we stumbled across a laundry mat (and as a bonus, it had instructions in Italian and English!). I even had to help some locals figure out how to use the machines (fun, two ladies who only speak Italian and Jenni and I…:-D). Obviously after we got our laundry done (yay!), we went back to the hotel to take a shower and change (amazing what a shower and fresh clothes can do!).

Then, we headed to Venice (we weren’t staying on the island, we were maybe 10-15 minutes away).

Venice was different (for one, parking garages in Italy are different; you leave your key in your unlocked car and get a ticket…hmm) but nice. If you ever go, don’t plan on spending a lot of time here, as there simply isn’t a ton to do. We only had four things on our list to do, and got three done in the 3-4 hours we were there. The only reason we didn’t do the fourth, is that it was closed (a church) and we decided it wouldn’t kill us to skip it.

Venice is tiny! We walked across the entire city (from the main bridge to Piazza San Marco) in about 45 minutes; which included souvenir shopping and eating dinner (pizza on the go; and some fresh fruit). That also included stopping for pictures along the way, and on the Rialto Bridge (the first bridge across the Grand Canal, the original was wooden and replaced by the current one in the 1600’s).

Now, I have to reserve this entire paragraph for Piazza San Marco. The pigeons, oh! The pigeons! Basically, walk out in the square with any food in your hands and they will attack you! Actually, they don’t hurt you—except maybe a few little scratches on your arms—but they will sit on you anywhere they think they can; and look everywhere for food! (Including my ear) That feeling is amazing, except when they start fighting each other…and when they decide to poop on you (sorry Graceland!).

Finally, of course, we took a ride on a gondola. Expensive, but worth it just to say you have done it. If you want to bargain with them, you might get a better price but after yesterday we just wanted everything to be simple. ;-)

One last thing about Venice, forget your map! Like I said the place is tiny, the streets are tiny, and there are only a few bridges. Just follow the signs, which will lead you directly (and by directly I mean winding through little streets which look like alleys but open up into big open spaces and random cafés and shops) to the Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco. They will also lead you back to the Piazza Roma where all the parking garages are.

Ciao!