Day 31 - Nice to Venice

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After our tour yesterday we had an early start, by holiday standards, up at 6am to finish packing, have breakfast and be at the station in Nice Ville for an 8:15am departure. As is Wayne's way we have to be early just in case or as Wayne puts it, it is hard to miss a train or plane if you're there early waiting.

Our travel today was taking us from Nice in the French Riveria in to Italy with a 15 minute change of train in Milan and then on to Venice to arrive at 15:40. When we booked this leg we thought 15 minutes was cutting it a bit fine to change trains but thought it must be fine otherwise why would the company allow us to do it. As it turns out our worst case scenario came true. At Nice station there were no elevators or escalators to go from the pedestrian subway up to the platform. With Vicki's shoulder surgery she couldn't lift her suitcase up all the stairs so Wayne did his world's strongest man impression and carried both heavy bags up the 20 or so stairs to the platform. There was an elderly man there who was getting stressed as to how to get his bags up to the platform. We barely had time to get to the train otherwise Wayne would have gone back and helped him.

On boarding the train there was a lady a few years older than us who was struggling to get her backpack in to the overhead locker. Wayne stopped and helped her, found out she was going to change at Milan too and offered to help her when we got there. Off we go on our trip to Venice via Milan, we'd not long crossed the Italian border when the police boarded the train and there we sat for 20 minutes while they went from carriage to carriage. We should point out at this stage we'd been on the train for about 30 minutes and there had been not a single announcement about anything to do with the train. The only contact we'd had so far were with extremely rude train employees at Nice Station on three separate occasions as we were trying to find out where to board our train.

That 20 minutes was to prove our downfall as it meant we missed our connection to Venice. Wayne left Vicki at platform 6 in Milan, where we to board the Venice bound train, and headed off to find out how we go about getting to Venice. Another encounter with another extremely rude railway employee and downstairs Wayne was off to get rebooked. Then the really rude railway employees were encountered. Take a ticket from the information desk, if you want to spend money buying tickets there's a really fast queue however if we've made you miss a connection wait while a single person tries to deal with dozens of people.

After about 30 minutes waiting Wayne asked one of the information people if he spoke English, to which he replied a clear no. Wayne said to him hang on a minute before you walk off, he stopped, and Wayne said to him you need to get more people out here serving look at the crowd. He said I no speak English, what Wayne said next is not for publication here suffice to say it was loud, very insulting and swear laden. He understood perfectly what Wayne thought of him as a person and the company he represented. Surprisingly not long after a young lady came out and she was good, fast and very efficient. Wayne handed her his rail app and said we'll be rebooked on this train thank you. She understood now was not the time to talk back, promptly rebooked us and we were on a 2:15pm train to Venice to arrive at 4:40pm.

The train was what we expected to be on initially. It was fast and the service on board was acceptable. We spoke to another couple on the train who were from Redland in Brisbane and they were also going to Venice. We arrived in Venice spot on time and then it was to find a boat to get to our hotel. Wayne again encountered another clueless and rude Italian buying the tickets, 15 Euro for two adults one way for five stops. That was cheaper than the 80 odd Euro for a water taxi. We waited in line in 30 degree heat with humidity for a boat. The first boat came and went as it was packed so we waited 15 more minutes for the next boat. It was like a sardine trawler and we'd hate to think what would have happened had it sunk. You'd probably die from the toxins in the water before drowning so life jackets weren't an issue.

It was about now that Wayne started comparing Venice to be worse than his other pet hate on this trip Paris. Vicki didn't care as she was starting to get heat stress and just wanted somewhere to cool off. Disembarking the boat at San Samuelle floating pier it was now on foot to the hotel. Two canal crossings involving more steps, a customary wrong turn misreading Google Maps and then some directions from the head waiter at a restaurant in the square and we were finally at our hotel some 10 and a bit hours after leaving Nice.

We knew the hotel was air conditioned but we didn't know was that the hotel didn't have lifts as they didn't do that in the 15th century when the hotel was built. So up to the 4th floor we go with Manuel our fearless Fawlty Towers porter and his sidekick carrying a suitcase that was bigger than him. By now Vicki looked more like a beetroot and definitely not her charm radiating from every pore self and Wayne, well he was drenched like he'd been in an afternoon downpour. Wayne's luggage had to be left at reception as they refused to bring it to our room.

The room was nice and cool from the air conditioning but all we wanted was food. So we quickly got tidied up and refreshed and headed out to the friendly head waiter's restaurant to spend 150 Euro on dinner, we were beyond looking for anything else at this point in time. We met a lovely Canadian couple seated next to us at the restaurant and had a good chat to them while we all had dinner. After dinner, and a complimentary bottle of limoncello later, we were feeling no pain just the after effects of alcohol and heat exhaustion. No worries back to the hotel for a shower, cool down and bed.

There is where things went from bad to worse to downright terrible to just plain unbelievable. Wayne went in to the bathroom and could not believe the space to enter the shower. He wears a size 12 men's shoe and it wouldn't fit in the gap. Wayne couldn't even get his foot in the shower length ways let alone any other part of his large frame. We were speechless, hot, bothered and extremely tired. A call to reception to let them know we're just confirming the earlier change of rooms to the ground floor was definitely on but only if we could access the shower.

Wayne was now ready for the first train out of Venice and was analyzing, as is his thing, what would be required to head to Florence. After a cold wash using the hand basin we were both so hot and spent that we went to bed.

Wait and see what tomorrow brings, it could get either really ugly or really interesting.

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Photos

Alasandro
The most charming direction giver in Venice- he was so good we came back to his restaurant for dinner.

Comments

[Annella Wheatley]

NOT a good day!
Oh dear. Italian train services are the absolute worst. Actually, Italy is pretty disorganised at the best of times but Venice is beautiful. Hope it gets better for you. Good luck with finding a roomy shower!

[WayneandVicki]

We got the roomy shower
It's a glass cube that you can look in from any point in the room. The rickety old desk I'm sitting at gets the grand view, straight through the glass shower to the toilet. I wouldn't come back here if you paid me, Venice is a rip off 7.5 Euro to ride in a crowded boat that will sink at any time. We leave today with nothing but nightmares.