Europe Travel Diary – Part II – Venice

Previously: Part I – Rome and the Vatican City

We left Rome bound for Venice on the morning of Sunday August 27. Mom had bought first class rail passes so the trip to Venice was very comfortable. Once we arrived in Venice we set our minds to finding our hotel. First we took a Vaporetto (water bus) and then searched the small streets and alleys. I took us 1.5 hours to get to the hotel but we made it. At one point we actually had to walk through the lobby of another hotel to get to the street we wanted to be on. After checking in we had a quick pizza lunch and walked over to Piazza San Marco to check things out. We did some window shopping and admired all the glass jewelry, Venetian masks, silk ties and other goods.

The next day we took a free taxi ride over to Murano to see a glass blowing factory. The free ride was the factory’s way to get customers out to their store and once we felt reasonably confident it wasn’t a total scam (ie we knew how to get back and weren’t obligated to buy anything) we were happy to take the trip. It was great to get out on the water. The pieces they had at the store were beautiful. It was like going to a glass museum. We decided not to stay and visit more of Murano and took a vaporetto back to San Marco and switched to another vaporetto to cruise down the Grand Canal. At this point we were pretty good at understanding which vaporetto to get to go where but it was always a little hit and miss if we were waiting in the right line to catch one going in the right direction. We had lunch near the Rialto bridge and then walked back to visit the Basilica. Dinner was take-out pizza which we ate in the square in front of our hotel. In the evening we went to an opera performance. It wasn’t actually opera season so the performance was a collection of famous arias.

The next day was what I referred to as Venice Museum day. We went up the Campanile and then visited the Doge’s Palace and the Academia. The Doge’s Palace was my favourite. It was a long day of walking but we were rewarded in the end when Mom’s suitcase finally arrived! She’d been without it since arriving in Rome and this mix up had ceased being funny several days ago.

I think all my travel companions would agree that Venice was one of the best stops of the trip. We were lucky because there were really no flooding or smell issues while we were there and the weather was lovely. The complete lack of motor vehicles was great and it was a beautiful city to explore. Perhaps the best work to describe Venice is unique.

We were up early on our last morning in Venice because we had to get back to the train station and we had no idea how long that would take. Luckily, we caught a vaporetto quite quickly and made it to the train station with lots of time to spare before our train to Florence …

The rest of my pictures from Venice are here

Next: Part III – Florence and San Marino