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Published: July 23rd 2012
So our Venice trip begins with our two mile walk from the hotel to the train station. This being a much earlier walk, it was definitely cooler than our last walk, but two miles is a long way carrying roughly 50 pounds between two bags! And you still manage to work up a pretty good sweat in Milan even at 7:00 in the morning. But we made it in plenty of time to sit down and have a few cups of Cappucino and a pastry for breakfast. I do have to say that the Italians make excellent coffee!
The way the trains worked in Milan, they actually don't tell you which platform you'll be leaving from until about 15 minutes before your train departs. From what we could tell, trains left from both the upstairs and downstairs areas of the station, but somehow we ended up in the right area with our preprinted confirmations in hand, and got on our train without any problems. We had purchased first class tickets because they were the same price as the regular fare, but just with no refund if you cancelled for any reason but we didn't think we had much risk of that. And I have to say that traveling by train is quite nice, and by first class, is really nice! Our seats were facing each other, with a desk space and power outlets for each person and they come through the train with refreshments just like they do when you're flying. Kirk really enjoyed it....you'll see in the pictures. 😊
It's a relatively short train ride to Venice, I think it was about two and a half hours and I was working on the blog through the ride so the time went by pretty fast. From the Saint Lucia station, we took a water taxi to our hotel. First time for that, that's for sure! There were several options for transportation, including a shared water taxi or the public vaporetti, which is a quite large boat and can get very crowded, but is a pretty inexpensive way to get around Venice. Having done the water taxis once (well twice as we took one to the airport also), I'd use the vaporetti next time especially once you get a bit more comfortable with the way the ticket stands work and a bit more knowledgeable about the stops and the area you're trying to reach. But since we had next to no knowledge and extremely limited Italian, we paid a bit more and splurged on the water taxi, which I will admit, was quite nice! The ride was pretty short and we were unloaded right in front of our hotel.
Our hotel was the Rialto Hotel, right next to the Rialto Bridge. It's certainly nothing fancy to look at from the outside, but then nothing in Venice really looks "fancy" in the terms that we're used to. The interior, however, was quite nice with venetian glass chandeliers throughout. Venice is a very, very old city and if there are new structures, you wouldn't know by looking as they're pretty indistinguishable from the old. The city has had occupants since the 10th century B.C., but its official founding is considered to be in 421. Venice itself is made up of 118 individual islands all linked by bridges.
I will say that the reviews of the Rialto Hotel had me concerned as they were pretty mixed on tripadvisor.com and I had already prepaid for it. I selected the Railto because of its location being right on the Grand Canal and it's an easy place to get to and from other areas of the city. Some reviews had people going down dark little alleyways (and they sure do have them in Venice!), but our room was in the main section of the hotel and we were really pleased with everything. We had no issues whatsoever with the hotel and the staff was extremely helpful and courteous and went above and beyond!
A few things about European hotels that we've learned.....the beds are all varying degrees of hard....most on the harder side of hard. Pillows are generally flat and can't really be fluffled and they're often on the small side. Your room may or may not come with a bidet (Kirk can answer any questions about that. lol) I've yet to find one that has hair conditioner. They have shampoo and bath gel and the little bottle in the middle is NOT conditioner, it's lotion so it's a good idea to check the labels (first hand knowledge lol). If your hotel has an actual room key (versus card entry), they usually expect you to leave it at the front desk as you come and go. As far as traveling in most bigger European cities, unless you somewhat know your way around or are very adventurous (and not afraid of restricted area tickets), there are plenty of public transportation options that generally run pretty smoothly and can get you to all the major areas you want to visit pretty inexpensively. And the European rail system is extensive not only from city to city but from country to country.
Back to Venice, my initial impression was amazement. Amazed that the number of boats, gondolas, vaporetti's, water taxi's, Alilguana (airport boats) that are in a constant state of motion somehow manage to reach their destinations without crashing into each other! There can be half a dozen boats all within a circle of about 50 feet, each going different directions. It's a bit like the scooters and tour buses in Milan, but on water in Venice.
There is a charm to Venice that is undeniable, but at the same time, you soon realize it's also quite commercial, especially so in high season during the summer. The gondolas aren't quite like the images you often see, as gentle quiet floats down the Grand Canal with a singing gonadalier, but many gondolas at any given time, jokeying for space and for access under bridges, not only on the Grand Canal but on the smaller canals too (and you have to pay extra for them to sing). And yes, the gondola rides are pretty expensive. They range from 80 to 100 Euros for about a 30 minute ride, both can vary based on the gondalier.
While we were there, the Feste del Redentore, Feast of the Redeemer which has been going on since 1577 as a celebration of the end of the plague, was going on over the weekend and on Saturday night there were fireworks over the water. A special gondola rate of 475 Euros (yes, you read that right) would take you out in to the bay to watch the fireworks from the water. Honestly, even if you could split it with 5 other people, the water was so choppy with all the boat activity in the bay that I couldn't even image being out there in a gondola!
So we check into the hotel with no issues whatsoever, go to our room and open up our windows and wooden shutters (which are quite nice to block out the morning sun), and I try to wrap up the blog and get it uploaded before we head out. As I mentioned before in a side note, there was a young guy sitting in the alleyway playing old italian love songs on an accordian so it was quite charming and set the mood well for the city, so we head out to take a look around.
You'll see in the pictures that there are all kinds of shops and restaurants just about anywhere you want to go in Venice....and old churchs on just about any square or plaza that you run into. I don't know how many there are, but one list I saw was a personal list that the writer had visited of over 140 and he said he knew of another 40 or so that he hadn't personally yet visited, so there are many, many churches! Many of them, however, don't permit pictures inside, so if you've seen pictures of the inside of any churches in my photos, they are only of the churches that permitted photography.
The shops range from snack shops, bakeries, and delis, to your big name designer clothing stores, Murano glass (made in Italy), jewelry stores, and Venetian mask stores. I have to admit, I became a bit mesmerized by the masks. The real masks are made of paper mache and then intricately decorated and some of the work is just amazing! They're not pricey at all if you get one from the street merchants, but in nicer shops that feature the masks, they are nearly works of art and can get upwards of 400 Euros. Our exchange rate when we were there was $1.30 to 1 Euro, so another 23% or so for us. So I looked and took pictures. 😊
I also noticed a bit of the same issue here that we had seen in Milan. The presence of graffiti was quite noticeable and although not quite as prevalent as Milan, it was on the sides of places where you least expected to see it, like the Rialto Bridge. Such a famous and historic landmark for Venice, yet it was marred with graffiti like we find in our own sketchy, urban concrete jungles. Far from what one expects of such a romantic destination and national treasure, it really marred the face and charm of the city.
At 5:30 we met up with a group for a local wine and tapas tour which ended up being a lot of fun. Our guide took us to some of the lesser known, small local places where we sampled wine and hor devours from each place. I can't even begin to tell you what the different foods were, but mixed with some very unknown and recnognizable snacks, were also the typical salami and cheese and crackers. I know we had some seafood and something that looked and tasted like tuna salad, but wasn't, and some calamari and bruschetta, but at each place there was an entirely different platter of food. We had a great group of people, a couple other groups of Americans and a group of three sisters from England who were a riot! We did get a gondola ride with it as well, even if it was only from one side to the other, which by the way, is only 50 cents (or the equivalent Euro.)
Tummy's full and tired from traveling, we pack it in and call it a night.
I'll wrap up Venice in another post and include all the pictures in that one, so hopefully tomorrow, I'll have that one uploaded as well.
Hope you all have had a good start to your week and enjoy a super wonderful day...I think you're all still in the middle of your days there! So until tomorrow....Ciao. 😊
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Mama & Daddy
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Had kinda withdrawals yesterday with no update - enjoying the blog tremendously. Hot today - 91. Lots of love