What a long day today! We were up pretty early to ensure we would make the hotel's breakfast before it ended at 9:30am. I had a couple of croissants that had stuff in them and some juice and a small hot chocolate. We then headed off to the train station to get a ride to Venice. Unfortunately, the timetable we received from the hotel was a rough photocopy and so we couldn't see that a number of trains only ran on Sundays... so, we ended up having to kill over an hour. We wandered around town, went to the bank and then waited for the train. It took about 25 minutes to get to Venice and we had to stand the majority of the way.
Once we arrived we headed out of the station via some side exit with a bunch of other people and then found ourselves face-to-face with the Grande Canal. Even though it was cool and rainy outside it still looked amazing! There were lots of boats in the water, either as taxis or private charters or gondalas, etc. It was quite the sight to see.
Jeff and I didn't have a good map so we decided we would figure out our way to San Marco square on our own (according to our Rough Guides book, it is arguably the busiest place in Italy). The streets were SO narrow and winding, just like a maze! Thankfully though, there were signs directing us or there would have been absolutely no way we would have found our way! There were so many twists, turns, dead ends and bridges that we definitely would have been lost in a heartbeat without any direction. It was fun though! And with more tourists than residents we knew we'd be led to it eventually. I enjoyed the walk throughly, even though it took half an hour or so before we found the square.
The square was huge with a ton of people! I can't even count how many tour groups there were. We went looking for the tourist information to find a map and for €2.50 we got one (urgh... I hate paying for maps) and if you wanted to pee, €1.50 (URGH! Jeff hates this the most). We decided to throw caution to the wind and just wander around... we did that for hours. The canals were so pretty and contrary to popular belief, they didn't smell or have floating garbage or anything. Yes, Venice is beat up, but what do you expect in such an old city and with 20+ million tourists passing through each year? After a few hours we had to pee so badly and we were starving (I had a gelato to tide me over and it was delicious!). We were also cheap and didn't want to pay to use the washroom (that we would have to find anyway) so we found a restaurant where we had sandwiches and got to use the washroom.
After our bodily needs were met (by nearly 4pm) we felt much more chipper and kept going. We found small canolis and enjoyed them thoroughly. We ended up doing a little souvenir shopping while we waited for it to get dark out (I wanted to see the city at night). Surprisingly, the prices weren't nearly as bad as we thought they would be! In fact, we actually thought we got a few deals! The prices were much better than Germany and Austria and even in the Czech, even the 'expensive' ones.
We wandered around again until it got darker out and then found a gondala! I figure, we're all the way here in Venice, we might as well do it! Luckily for us, we got a gondala just before 7pm which means we saved ourselves €20! After 7pm it would have been more expensive! The ride was very nice :) The canals were pretty and quiet away from all of the tourists and lit up. It wasn't a long ride by any means but it was an experience :) I'm glad we did it. We had bought a half litre of white wine and two plastic cups for two euro and started our ride with a toast.
After our gondala ride we had to figure out how to get back to the train station. Let me tell you, navigating the maze-like streets in the dark is not easy! After a few wrong turns and dead ends we managed to find the station. We arrived at the perfect time and after buying our tickets we hopped right onto the train. When we got back to Mogliano Veneto we grabbed some pizza for dinner (about 8:30pm) and inhaled it as soon as we got in the door.
We had an eight hour day in Venice and it was great, even though we only sat down for a total of 30 minutes or so - our legs are aching!
Time to hit the hay because we're wiped and have another day in Venice tomorrow!
Night,
Amanda
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