Venice

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Our train ride to Venice from Milano was only a couple of hours long and when we arrived, we were greeted with a hot shining sun and very humid weather. Sweating buckets in a matter of minutes, we had a problem. Our last hotel in Milan didn’t have wifi and we had booked our bed and breakfast in Venice back in Lyon, along with a lot of other hotels... and we could not remember the name of our hotel, nor could we find any open wifi networks that didn’t require us to have an Italian SIM card to access. So we basically arrived in Venice, without a hotel name or directions of how to get there. Looking at the Venice map, I knew we had booked a place called, something B&B. Thinking maybe it was Dorsoduro B&B, we headed in that direction. We got SO lost. The canals in Venice are hard to navigate when you know where you’re going and even have a map, when you have no idea where you are going and you are looking at a photo of a map on a cell phone, it’s really difficult.

We arrived at what we hoped was our place about an hour and a half later. It was so hot and during midafternoon when we were walking down what seemed like every street existent, twisting and turning and going in circles. The nice man at the B&B informed us that he did not have a reservation for us but that we could use his wifi and help us find where we were going. We had actually booked a place in San Marco (~20 min walk from the train station down a major street), and we were nowhere close. So we headed back a different direction, following the map he had drawn the directions on for us and finally found our place. It was great to drop our disgustingly sweaty bags and flip the AC on. We showered off and went for a walk around the canals.

That night we went out for a good dinner and took some pictures before a light rain started to fall, it was nice and refreshing. We stopped at a supermarket and stocked up on some snacks before heading back to the B&B for the night. Our place was really nice, there were only three rooms upstairs and we were the only people staying there that night. It was a floor above a very interesting restaurant that was decorated with strange statues and masks of barbarians, monsters, etc. It was kind of halloweenish inside and they ran the bed and breakfast upstairs.

The next day we went to a laundromat in the morning so that Binnson wouldn’t have to borrow my clothes and washed everything up. After we were done, we headed to the San Marco Piazza and checked out the big touristy attractions. There was a big basilica, a palace, a clock tower, a bell tower, etc. We only waited in line for the basilica and then went back to roaming the canals and getting lost. At this point in our travels, we are slowly feeling less of a need to check EVERYTHING out and more of a need to just roam, dip into things that interest us and relax. After all, we have seriously seen a lot of churches, palaces, castles, etc. Instead of waiting in line for the great view on top of a tall structure, I would rather wait at the gelataria with the longest line- that also could have to do with the crazy hot and humid temperatures. It’s definitely high season here, and there are a million tour groups, cruise ship groups, etc. filling up the canal roads and squares. It really was only when we were lost in Dorsoduro that we found space with no tourists.

We debated heavily about going for the gondola ride and finally after talking to many gondoliers decided against. In the dead heat of the mid day you could take the ride on the side canals for 80 euro, and after 7 it was available for 100 euro and this was not even at the main canal, prices increased for this area. So we decided we could buy a lot of gelato for that price and carried on with our night. There was a ton of action on the road from our place towards the train station and so we spent the rest of the night wandering around the markets, shops, and taking photos. It was a great night and even at 10pm, it was still too warm outside. The next morning we said our goodbyes to our B&B hosts and headed back to the train station to depart for Rome.

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