Venice, A Day Trip

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Our original plan was to stay in southern Italy for a couple of weeks then northern Italy for a couple of weeks. I’d wanted to say a month in each place but we compromised on 2 weeks for each. Since we were planning our whole trip around the opera in Verona, we thought we’d stay in Verona and make day trips from there. So, Verona would be our last place to stay in Italy.

The trip to Verona was a quick train ride and after getting a taxi we were in our new apartment in no time. That afternoon and the following day we hunted and gathered food and familiarized ourselves with our new surroundings. Explored the plazas that I’d hoped we would enjoy and Zaya tested the gelato.

Venice was the 1^st day trip from Verona, only a 1-hour ride by train. Dale and I were not particularly interested in Venice but we thought that Zaya would enjoy it. It was an ok little island, but what we enjoyed was walking from one side, at St. Marks Square, to the train station. The walk took us down narrow streets and low covered alleys with lots of small bridges. Some bridges went to doorways, some to sidewalks on the other side. Some alleys opened up to shops with beautiful glassware or bakeries with beautiful pastries.

We took the river taxi to St. Marks and loved the Rialto Bridge. We also had read that the better places to eat were around the Rialto Bridge so it was only fitting that we’d eat somewhere around the bridge along the water. We did find a restaurant, ordered a filet of fish to feed all of us, fries and wine. We were feeling very glamorous, sitting at the water’s edge with our lunch and wine.

After lunch we’d planned to ride on a gondola. This was a great idea until they would take a credit card, only cash. We walked to the bank but when we got there, I realized that I’d intentionally left my bank card at home. I didn’t need the card today. Except that I did need to card to get cash, I only had a few cents on me and Dale had no cash at all. So, there was no gondola ride. I bought Zaya a piece of glass and some gelato and all was forgiven.

We found a little shop with coffee and waited for our friend, Kim, to get back from her adventures then it was back to Verona.

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