On The Road Again - Pt 1 - Venice

So we got on the train and headed up to Venice. The train ride was nice, first class all the way, and we watched Tuscany fly by out the window. We had gone online and pre-booked our accommodation, it was nice to not have that ‘where are we going to stay tonight’ feeling. We had been advised by many not to stay in Venice itself so we picked Mestre as it was the closest, just across the bridge in fact.



After non-stop travelling for nearly 3 weeks we decided to take a day off and chill out. So we stayed in our hotel room, watched some of the Arrested Development series I got for my birthday and Italian dubbed ‘Murder she Wrote’ on TV. We got refreshed and you all got a Rome blog out of it!





So we had one day in Venice and we walked out the door to find the weather had changed considerably. It was still warm but very cloudy, quite ominously. We caught the bus across to Venice and started walking through the warren of alleyways when the rain hit.

As the first drops started to fall a street vendor came out to sell umbrellas – perfect timing! The rain quickly got worse. We ended up sitting under a pergola, with a bunch of other frozen tourists, as the rain turned to a storm with thunder & lightning. But it past, leaving lots of puddles and we ventured out again.

We followed our noses, which lead us through many twists & turns, some dead ends but generally a good view of Venice. It really is a beautiful city, nice to not have any cars around. We found Ponte di Rialto, the main bridge across the Grand Canal. It’s a nice bridge, though covered with stores selling masks, t-shirts and all the normal tourist garb.





We walked to St Marks Square, which honestly, I wasn’t too impressed with. I think it didn’t help that there was a lot of restoration going on so half the basilica was covered in scaffolding and there was fencing all the way around the tower. Also the weather didn’t add to any wow factor either. But it meant that the line to the tower was short so we went up the top and got a good view of the city.











We stopped for lunch in a gorgeous restaurant where the huge Italian chef was flipping out the pizza's like a pro. I had to take a few spy photo's!





After lunch, with the clouds starting to clear, we went in search for a gondola. Andrew & I got lost in Venice looking for a gondola! We crossed the Grand Canal again at some point and kept walking, many times in circles, eventually finding a large looking body of water which we followed and after a great deal of time and the killing of my newly rested feet we found ourselves at the end of the point, on the wrong side of the canal! So we had to follow the canal back to the place where we had crossed over a couple of hours earlier where finally there was a gondola!











The first gondola we found and we took it, regardless of the fact that he was charging €20 more than everywhere else – desperate times, desperate measures! So we went along some of the Grand Canal and for a loop through a few canals, it wasn’t as grand as I’d expected but it was nice. The best bit was when a gondola with an accordion player and singer floated past – loved that, but was glad he wasn’t in our boat!







By then it was getting late so we walked back to the bus station to go home, following the signs closely this time. On the way we past by a violinist sitting on the steps of a cathedral playing a beautiful song. A little boy, enjoying the music, danced along. It was beautiful to watch, a nice end to a day full of adventure.





So now we sit on a train to Austria, looking out at the mountains and towns, about to say goodbye to Italy. It’s been a good week.