Fast gondola to Venice

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Happy All Saints Day.. OMG we are in Venice, we are in Venice, it's a public holiday here in Italy today, well for some in any case all shops are open apparently. After breakfast today we met a couple of Brisbanites on holiday.. They were away for 2 weeks and visiting Rome, Florence Paris and London.. Argh I thought our trip was packed... We sat chatting for ages, so much so we literally only had time to pick up our bags and go to the station. No shopping for shoes as I had planned.. Oh well maybe in Venice..

The train trip to Venice has many tunnels so it was a great time to catch up on some reading and listening to music. This fast train wasn't as new as the first one we caught but still we were lucky we had a table and plenty of room. Our ticket said we had to get off at Venezia mestre so we did, I couldn't work out how we might catch a water taxi when we'd not seen any water yet... Agh nothing was open for us to find out or those places that were either didnt or didnt want to speak englaise eventually col found out we had been booked to get off at the wrong stop, we had to get on the next Venezia Santa Lucia Train to the Venezia stop.. Not a problemo these run very frequently and we could use our ticket still.

We stood waiting for the train when a young woman from brazil came to ask re the next train so we stood chatting about her trip we got onto the train laughing about our adventures. The train began in suburbia and then went over a bridge over water ahh now i can see us catching water taxis.. The stations here in Italy don't have much in English so often you are having a bit of a guess.

Arriving in Venice was incredible, a place I had wanted to see since a child and here we were, coming out of the train station in venice the scene was one of water boats and water taxis which was quite weird really. We caught a water taxi to our stop, the guys took us closer to our hotel and then they very nicely walked us to our hotel im not sure we would have found it if they hadn't done that. It was fabulous going along the grand canal looking at all the buildings, water vehicles, bridges and little laneways. Pinching myself that we were here we were like kids in a Disney store (they have loads of Disney stores in Italy).. We kept saying to each otHer " Guess what were in Venice..."

Very quaint hotel, with a tiny room, but that's ok we don't plan to be in here much during the day.. We got settled then went looking for some food and to aquaint ourselves, we failed at aquainting ourselves we got lost quite badly but all was good we found the railto bridge with the shops all up it and the market so we wandered around them and then found the cafe recommend to us for tea.. Through some little laneways and over a canal.. Tummy s full we ventured back to the hotel. Venice flooded this morning so we are hoping for no rain over the next few days,to allow us to get around they have offered us some rubber boots if we need them, they are quite a fashion item here in Venice, if I'd known I'd have brought my pink ones with me....

We are in Venice...

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