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Published: September 27th 2014
September 26 – Manarolla to Florence to Venice
We had to say goodbye to our favorite location this morning. We thoroughly enjoyed our little rooms and roof top terrace at Manarolla. The late afternoon swim and walking up to the small grocery store and picking up our bread, meat, cheese, wine, and of course Pringles!. We also completed our nights with a beautiful sunset and several games of 500.
We left very early (7:15 am) to meet our driver back to Florence. A quiet ride out of the sleepy seaside Cinque Terre to the hustle and bustle of Florence. We arrived in Florence an hour early and prepared to meet our 10:30 train to Venice. Right on time after we had a chance to use the restroom or WC, as they call them in Italy. You have to pay 1.50 Euro to use the toilet. Not like the old days, where you put your money in the door and turned the knob. No, you have turnstile with arms and you put your coins in and the cross arms lower and let you in to the area. Once your business is done, you head back out the out turnstiles with
the crossing arms going up.
Our train left right on time and we were giving delicious lemon cookies and a small Dixie cup of coffee. We had them give us more in return for the sugar and cream we did not need. The train made a number of stops and was not as high speed as our train was from Naples to Florence. We arrived shortly before 1:00 pm and our representative Cristina met us at the train station for our private taxi “Boat” ride to our hotel. Venice is an island with a grand canal and hundreds of smaller canals running through the city. Dan took some great pictures of the beautiful wood boat and cruise to the hotel. Venice is very beautiful and very busy, especially along the waterfront and St. Marks. We arrived at our hotel Ca Dei’ Conti. The canal next to the hotel was too high, so we had to stop a little short. Venice is made up of canals, boats, gondolas and small water taxis. There are no cars or scooters on the island but thousands of streets, campos and very small hallways. Upon arrival at our hotel, we were moved to a
different hotel a couple of blocks (100 meters) away. We were told we were upgraded but our rooms and service told us something different. We did not have enough time, because we had to scoot to our Venice walking tour at 2:30. We met our guide, grabbed our headsets and headed off to St. Mark’s square and the beautiful buildings. Our guide as not the greatest. We could not understand or hear him very well. Also, was not very interesting. We also had many people in and around out tour. In some cases we had to do some serious elbowing to move them out of the way. Very crowded…We finished out tour along the water and headed to our canal tour. We met Georgia, our bubbly tour guide and she directed us to a beautiful wood speed boat. The tour was great. We got a chance to travel in and around the Grand Canal and see the wonderful Rialto Bridge and the many old churches and business. We also got a chance to see the paparazzi waiting outside George Clooney’s hotel. He is supposed to be getting married this weekend in Venice! I hope we can crash the reception!
We finished out boat ride and Dan got us organized and mapped us to our evening meal location. We enjoyed a delightful meal, not our best but filled our tummies. We checked out some great Venetian gelato and attempted to head back to our hotel. We made a stop in St. Mark’s square to look at the lights and hear the music. Wonderful walk, to hear the music and see the lights of the square. Not as crowded but still alive with people and activity.
The journey back to our hotel was adventurous. Remember we quickly checked in and headed out for out tours. We had maps and Dan’s great sense of direction, but it was late and dark and we got turned around. We quickly regrouped with our gps phones and maps. Unfortunately our phones were dying and we kept going in circles. Everything sort of looked familiar but not really. We finally nailed a route and it directed us to where we had been circling. Yes, we kept going past our hotel entrance. In all fairness, the hotel we were assigned was not the regular hotel and the front door did not light up, unless you walked
up to it. We arrived, called it night and went to bed!
We will tackle Venice in the morning…
Doug & Sherry and Dan & Jane
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Cina
non-member comment
Thanks
Love these blogs. You four are so busy. Love the pics and seeing what you are eating for dinner every night. When do you come home? Friday, Oct. 3, Bertha is coming here for dinner; would love to have you join us.