Ah Venice....

This weekend Britt and I made it to Venice!! We have been so excited for this trip. Friday after work, we grabbed our bags and high-tailed it up the road to Gavinana's center and the bus station. We caught our bus and made it to Pistoia, where we then got on a train for Florence. In Florence, we changed trains for one to Venezia! While in the Firenze train station waiting for our train, we pulled out some cookies to munch on. A girl came by and pointed to our cookies and then her mouth all the while speaking another language. It took me a minute to realize what she wanted, and then I realized she wanted a cookie. So I gave her the one in my hand and she took it and walked away. Very random.. The train ride to Venezia was about 2 1/2 hours and was on a faster train that felt like an airplane on tracks. Now our hotel was not in Venice, but in Mestre which is right outside of Venice and therefore cheaper. We got off at the train station and realized we had no idea where our hotel was. Thankfully, my iPad came through! I was able to map our way to the hotel from the station, which was about a 20-30 minute walk. When we got to our hotel, The Venezia, we were very surprised. It was a nice-ish place, but very gaudily decorated. The front desk people were very helpful. While we were standing up there, a man came up and asked for another room because he said it was the smallest room he'd ever seen in his life. Uh oh...not a good sign. We head up to our room and when I open the door...I see the smallest room I've ever seen in my life. The bathroom was almost just as big as the bedroom part! Fortunately, we were only sleeping here and only for one night. We had a good laugh about it.

After we got settled into our closet, we go out to catch the bus the front desk told us about and experience Venice at night! All these buses and trams and trains are crazy, but we are learning a lot everyday! The bus takes us across the water to the island to Piazza Roma, which is where all of the buses pick-up and drop off. From here we go to an information desk and buy our "Rolling Venice" cards, which are for people 15-29 and we get discounts on admission to various places of interest as well as a discount on a 72 hour pass for the vaporetti, the water bus that takes you around the major canals of Venice. We hopped on the vaporetti that went down the Grand Canal all the way to San Marco. The way down was about 20 minutes and it was so cool. Then we got back on and went to he Accademia stop which is known for having cheaper prices and a younger nightlife. We walked around for a bit, had dinner and then traversed our way on foot back to the Piazza Roma to catch our bus back to the hotel. All of our guide books encouraged us to "get lost" in the back streets of Venice. It's the best way to experience the city and since we are on an island, it's impossible to get really lost. We got back to our hotel and passed out. It was a long day!

The next morning, we had breakfast at the hotel and then checked out to head to our second hotel for Saturday night. Why didn't we just stay at this hotel both nights you ask? Well, that was the plan, but when we booked it, we didn't realize we had messed up the check-in and check-out dates and when we went back minutes later to book Saturday night, it was sold out! So, an hour later we finally found a second hotel, which was in another town, Marghera, on the opposite side of the train station. So per the hotel's suggestion, we took the tram to the train station and walked from there to our hotel. I busted out my iPad and mapped our way out. This side of the tracks was much calmer and was such a nice area than the other side, Mestre. We joked that Mestre, the town of our first hotel, was the New Jersey to Venice's New York City.  Once we found our second hotel, Albergo Serena Villa, it was such a breath of fresh air. Cute, quaint, B&B style. The room was twice as big as the previous, which albeit, wasn't saying much. But we had 2 twin beds instead of one double which was nice.

After settling in here, we figured out this second bus schedule and got on for what we thought was heading to Venice, well we realized too late that, yes, it was going to Venice, but only after it went the complete opposite direction and then came all the way back again. Oy oy...but we finally made it back to Venice! It was a beautiful clear day with the temperature in the mid 70s. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We get on the vaporetti for Piazza San Marco and realize that this, too, is going the opposite direction from where we want to go...so we hop off on the next stop and wait for a vaporetti going back the other way. We did find, though, that this way we can get prime seating at the front before the crowds load up! We used this to our advantage on our last day when we took a final trip down the entire Grand Canal while listening to a podcast from Rick Steves describing the sights along the way.

The Piazza San Marco was the busiest part of Venice, but also the most beautiful. I might have done a little twirl in the middle of the piazza because it felt so surreal :) We're in Venice! We saw the Museo Correr and National Archaeology Museum, both of which house ancient artifacts. We stopped for gelato, then went into St. Mark's Basilica, another gorgeous church in Italy. The line to get in was very long, but, thanks to a tip from Britt's family, we took a backpack and checked it (because they don't allow extra bags) and with the ticket they gave us we were able to skip the entire line! We were able to go to the top of the church and go out on a balcony for a view of the entire piazza.  There were two orchestras which had about 4 musicians each that played in the piazza; gorgeous music that was the epitome of my idea of Italy. And one orchestra played one of my favorite songs, "Time To Say Goodbye"! 

For dinner, we found a recommendation in my book, "Let's Go Italy!" which is made for students. It took forever to find the restaurant, "Ristorante Anima Bella" which my book describes as having the best ravioli in Venice. Once we finally found the place on a back street behind the piazza, we saw that it was no bigger than our room at the first hotel! There were five tables and they were all squeezed in together. There was only one table available left, for two! So we sat and the waitress came by, who I presume was the owner, and told us our three options. We heard ravioli and said that's it! And boy were they right. It was the absolute best dish I've had since being in Italy! It was a great way to end the day.

The following day, our last in Venice, we go back to San Marco for one last look and gelato and then get a vaporetti for the island of Murano, the "glass island" that produces the famous Venetian glass We did not have as much time to explore there as we would have liked, but we visited a museum that had on display pieces that trace the development of Murano's glass industry from its earliest stages (1st century!) to the present day.  Then it was time to head to the train station for our long trip back "home". We sure were sad to leave Venice.

On the bus ride back up the mountain to Gavinana, we met a lady who discovered we were Americano when she tried to strike up a conversation with Britt. We told her we were students at Turati and she immediately recognized the place. She made sure we knew when to change buses and when to get off for our final stop after she told the bus driver where to take us. (We didn't have the heart to tell her we'd done this before.) But we were very grateful that she cared enough to look out
for us! We continue to meet such nice people here in Italy!