OK, it was a little, and I do mean little, easier finding the hotel in Venice. My family would argue the fact.
We took the fastest train in Italy (Eurostar Italy) and got to Venezia (that's what they call it here), in 2 hours from Florence. That was the easy part. Our hotel was actually in Mestre, which happened to be the stop right before Venice. No big deal, just hop on the regional train and head back the other way (20 minutes) and we're there, right?.
First we needed to get our last reservations to Munich for a couple days from now. We got in the line and made it to the front in about 20 minutes. Bad news was they said there were only night trains (10:30 pm - 6:30am). This is not what the Eurorail book schedule said! They steered us to the Eurorail office and they confirmed that there was a 1:34pm train, needing no reservations daily. YAY! Now we just needed to get the train back to Mestre. Well, we did that and got off the train to find a town that was basically shut down. There were very few people for mid afternoon.
We were lugging very heavy backpacks and it was a little sticky out. Eventually we found a hotel that was willing to call us a taxi to get to ours (5km away). As we wound thru the streets of Mestre, entered an industrial area (which looked like a nuclear plant), we got a litle nervous. The ride was about 20 minutes and cost another 20 Euro. I think I can shit 20 euros, if I tried, by now. We finally got the hotel, it turned out to be quite charming.
We dropped our bags and headed for Venezia. As we know now, the hotel has free shuttle in the mornings and buses or (1.20 per person), throughout the day. Since it was already afternoon we grabbed the next bus and in 15 minutes we were back in Venice. Wait a sec here, 20 minute train ride, 20 minute taxi ride = 40 minnutes. How did the bus get us there in 15? Oh well...
When we got the Venice the weather was threatening and it looked like we had just entered the eye of the storm. We hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was now close to 4. We walked toward the famous square (San Marco), but in the way found a nice little square of our own (at least that's what we claimed). We took our chances on a little cafe that looked across the square for maximum people watching. This turned out to the be one of the best meals of the trip!. The pasta was out of his world and the wine was cheap. Rianna's pasta even had some bacon in it (more on that later). We played with a local dog that got us into his ball game as we ate. We also witnessed the graduation ritual (which is where they stand in a circle, dress up the graduate in robes and wigs, pour flour on their heads and chug beers)
With our usual Mergens vacation luck, it started to clear after our lunch/dinner. As luck would have it, one the Gondoliers approached us and offered a full city trip for only 100 Euro. Sounds like a lot, but the others were getting 160. The weather was calm and sunny now, so SOLD!. We took off for one of the lifelong events you';d thought you'd never experience.
This city is probably the most interesting one I've ever seen in my almost 50 years on this earth. Some of it built more than 700 years ago and it is still housing people and functioning as normal. No cars, which you'd think about as you strolled thru the corridors. How'd they get to the hotels, their houses, their businesses? How'd they build this place? So COOL!. There were so many boats and gondolas, but it never seemed overcrowded, like it can on the freeway (which is basically what this was for them)
Random Thoughts:
1) Could we get a whold slab of bacon please?
2) Venice rocks!
3) Do they not own a pizza cutter in Italy?
4) Wine if mucho cheapo in Venice!
5) Italian WIFI sucks!
6) The weather has been FANTASTIC!
Hopefully I can post the pictures in Germany.
LOTS of the pictures!
https://picasaweb.google.com/112902688959282032432/Day18Venice?authkey=Gv1sRgCJb0sPfm4MCRigE&feat=directlink
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