A Day in Venice

 

Santa Lucia train station in Venice

The train experience (we went basic 2nd class) was nicer than I expected. The train was air conditioned (if anything we got cold) and the seats were comfortable. They had assigned seating and it was easy enough to find your assigned carriage and seat, once we figured out what all the signs meant. We left Florence a bit late and arrived in Venice just before noon.

Next we had to stand in line for Vaporatti tickets (the public water buses). The line looked long, but it moved okay and before too long we had four 12 hour passes so we could ride however much we wanted.

Classic Venice

A Vaporatti boat

Doge's Palace on the Grand Canal--look at all the people on the shore

More Grand Canal sites

The downside to the water buses versus a rented
gondola is that you can't go down the small side
canals like the gondolas do.

We spent most of our day in Venice on those boats. At first we were trapped inside-- too many people so we couldn't snag the few outdoor seats, but once we passed the major sites on the grand canal enough people got off that we were able to move to the open-air back. That was fun. That was also the point where you leave the canal and are going around the edge of the island, so they go faster.

One of the large churches in Venice

A church on an outlying island



It was fun to feel the breeze and watch all the other boats. We were having so much fun that we stayed on all the way out to the island of Lido. We got off there and found a gelato stand and had some yummy cones. Then we hopped the next boat headed back to the main island.

Who exactly can afford a yacht this size?  The boats around it
are big.  This one was just insane.

So many pretty bridges

The boats came in lots of different sizes and configurations. This one didn't have as many outdoor seats, so instead we were up in the inside of the front. This route ran along the outside edge of the main island and you could see other smaller islands out in the distance. The sky was looking darker and darker and then the rain came. It poured--even some lightning and hail. The water was pretty wavy and people getting on and off at stops got soaked. We no longer felt bad about our indoor seats. The storm was actually quite fun. 

Here comes the rain!

Some good waves on the water bus

Once the rain calmed to a drizzle, we moved to the outdoor seats in the back that everyone had abandoned. That was great . There were only four seats back there so we had it all to ourselves and had a great time as we cruised around the island. Gradually the clouds cleared and the sun came out again.

Sailing under a bridge

 

Another water bus (vaporatti) is ahead on the right

 

Check out the cool statue on the bank

Around 3:30, we got off at San Marco Square. We had afternoon tickets for the Doge's Palace (costs less after 3 pm). We had bought them in advance to avoid what can be terrible lines, but surprisingly there weren't too many people around. That was great in the buildings because we were spared the Louvre/Versaille packed in a crowd feeling. We were able to roam freely and comfortably except for a few times that we collided with dreaded tour groups.  We were glad there weren't too many people because it was quite warm in the buildings as it was. With a crowd it would have been miserable. We wandered through all the apartments and assembly rooms in the castle. Crazily ornate of course.  They had beautiful chandeliers. We also went through the armory and the prisons . My boy loved the armory-- case after case of swords, knight armor, shields, arrows, etc. All very ornate as well as functional. We were thinking of how our society doesn't do that anymore. You don't have beautiful decorations all over an AK-47. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the palace. I hate it when they do that. We did get a few shots out in the courtyard.

The Bridge of Sighs leading to the dungeons of the palace



An old gondola in the palace courtyard

   

Staircase in the courtyard

 



So strange to be in a building, glance out a door, and see this.



After seeing the palace, we wandered through the surrounding streets on foot for a while. We checked out the outside of Saint Mark's cathedral but skipped the huge line to go inside. 

San Marco Square.  Notice the flying lions on the far building.
It is a symbol of St. Mark and became a symbol of Venice when
they adopted Mark as their patron saint.

St. Mark's Cathedral

The tourist shops were more fun in Venice then anywhere we've been. I think because the two most common souveniers there were Carnival masks and glass from the glassworks on Murano. Both of those categories include a huge variety of beautiful, colorful objects so it was quite fun to window shop. 

 

An amazing of the incredible, colorful glass work



 

An ATM in the wall of an old church--
Funny mix of old and new

Tight spaces

 And Venice really is unlike anywhere we've seen. It is just so unreal seeing the water lapping at the doorsteps and to walk down a little alleyway and run into a little canal. We walked back as far as the Riolto Bridge and then hopped the boat again back to the train station. We took the 6:30 pm train back to Florence, getting back to our hotel around 8:30 or 9. It was a really nice day. 







 

The Rialto Bridge--there were stores all along it

A unique street vendor

 

An Impromptu Search for Sun in Italy

Funny how a little thread of an idea can grow and morph and take on a life of its own. We started out with the idea that since the kids were out of school, we should go with my husband on his next business trip to Stuttgart, Germany.  Flights looked pricey so we considered driving.  Then we started talking about how once we were that far south, maybe we should continue on to Italy and see Venice.  That started looking like a really long drive and next thing we knew, the business trip to Germany was postponed and airline tickets to Pisa, Italy for a long weekend in Italy were purchased. We were all excited for some real summer weather.



 

 

Malmö-Sturup Airport--the sun finally came out as we took off but
you can see how wet it was from raining all day

We flew Ryan Air which doesn't have the greatest reputation here. It is a discount carrier where you don't get assigned seats, but they do offer some REALLY cheap fares sometimes. Cheap enough that my husband wondered if we dared fly with them. We had to leave on Midsummer's Eve to get the best rate. Since it was so cold and rainy, we didn't feel too bad about that. The airline compensates for the low fares by charging fees for everything-- if you want to check a bag, if you want SMS messages about flight status, if you want them to print your boarding pass, etc. You can pay an extra fee for priority boarding (get on first) or even more for reserved seats (get on first and specific seats). We avoided most of this but did pay the extra fee to reserve seats. We wanted to all sit together and it was nice. We felt like VIPs. We didn't have to stand in the super long lines with everyone else. We sat in the second row both flights and it turns out that they leave rows 3 and 4 empty (for weight distribution issues) so it was like sitting in first class.

 

Waiting for the flight was actually quite entertaining. You had to prove your one carry-on would fit in this little cage thing or you had to pay to check it. And they REALLY mean one carry-on. Any purse, computer, etc. must all go into that one bag. We each had our own backpacks. With a little persuasion, they all passed the test. Then we sat there and watched the show as all our fellow passengers did the same-- little kids having great fun putting their tiny bags in and out 10 times were kind of cute but the hilarious ones were those that just didn't quite fit. One lady wrestled with hers for a good ten minutes before finally managing to force it in. She got a round of applause from all the already checked people when she succeeded. Then there was a group of college kids that all had identical hard shell carry-ons. The hard shells typically fit easily, but these had an accordian-like expansion section in the middle that made them a little too fat. The first girl got hers partially in and then it got stuck. Since the whole group needed to prove that type of bag was small enough, they all set to work trying to shove it all the way in. They were tugging, pushing and pulling and laughing hysterically the whole time. It doesn't help that this thing you have to test in has no weight to it so it comes off the ground as you lift the bag. Finally one of the boys jumped on the suitcase to shove it down. It went down but there was a really nasty crunching sound. We had to wonder what item in her luggage would never be the same again. Then they had to spend another 10 minutes trying to pry it back out. But they were successful and the airline employees let them go without testing the rest of the group.

 

Flying over the Alps



Being on the flight was a little like an infomercial. They try to sell you food, gifts, lottery tickets, bus tickets for your destination, but with headphones on you could zone that all out. And they did successfully get us to Pisa-- 20 minutes early even.

 

Pisa Airport



We'd decided to get a hotel in Florence for the first few days. It is in between Pisa and Venice, the train station there (Firenze S.m. Novella) is a major hub, and the hotel rates were much better than in Venice. We'd planned to take the train from the Pisa airport to Florence but when we walked up to the ticket booth, we learned that there was a train strike that day. Thankfully the one employee working pointed us to shuttle buses outside. Several companies run buses from the airport to Florence so we were able to get on one of those without difficulty for the hour ride. We enjoyed hanging out outside the airport waiting for the bus in the WARM twilight!



Buses to Florence

The sun sets earlier in Italy



All kinds of fun animal sculptures in front of the airport

We got to Florence just as it was getting dark-- around 10 pm. We bought a late dinner at McDonald's at the train station and then found our way to the Alinari Hotel. It's big selling points had been reasonable price and proximity to the train station and it really was close. Just a couple minutes walk up the street. It was an odd building. The hotel sign was outside but there was no door there. We went into a little courtyard and then found a door. Turns out the hotel was just a few floors of the building-- there were stores on the bottom, another hotel and who knows what else. Our hotel was on the 4th floor. Once we found it and were shown our room we were very satisfied. It was quite spacious for a European room-- double bed and two twins and a small table and two chairs and yet still room to walk around. The bathroom was also decent sized. The A/C worked which was important. In the morning, they had a nice breakfast buffet with rolls, pastry, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and the kids' favorite-- cake. Chocolate cake for breakfast!



Our first view of Florence

Our very gold hotel room

We tried to get dressed and ready in a reasonable time in hopes of catching the 8:30 am train to Venice. We got to the station early enough but had trouble buying tickets. Every scenario we plugged in to the self-serve machine-- 1st class, 2nd class, family-- would get us almost there and then say "only 3 tickets available" and kick us out. Ahh! So we gave up on that train and tried the next one-- at 9:20 am-- and had similar problems. We finally got it to say we could have 4 tickets and also picked our return trip for the evening, and then it rejected our credit card when we tried to pay. We were getting a bit frustrated at this point. We tried doing it all again (when it rejected the card, it started all over) and tried cash, but it wouldn't take bills, just coins (not feasible with a multiple 100 euros fare).  My husband went looking for a ticket desk. I found a little help desk and asked there-- turned out most machines did take bills, just not the particular one we had used. We tried one more time at a different machine and were able to feed in our money and get our tickets. Phew! Since we now had time to kill, we went and walked around the outside of Santa Maria Novella-- a large church right by the train station. Then we came back and found our train to Venice.

 

 



Santa Maria Novella



Santa Maria Novella from the side

 

 

 

Close-up of the obelisk in the square--supported on
the backs of turtles

 

A typical train station on our way to Venice