We left our hotel room in rainy Florence this morning and made the long 20 minute walk back to the train station, dodging a sea of oncoming umbrellas and a minefield of water puddles in the cobblestone streets & sidewalks. Once we reached the train station we decided to fork out a few Euros to purchase a second travel-size umbrella since the weather report predicted rain for the rest of today and parts of the next few days...
We found out what track our train was going to leave from and headed over just in time to see our EuroStar train rolling into the station. The previous trains we've taken have been OK, but not anywhere nearly as nice as this EuroStar train! It was almost like an airplane inside. Nice bathrooms, automatic doors, electronic window shades, tables, and even headphone jacks & controls in the armrests. The ride was smooth and quiet and the train moved along at a fairly quick pace (noticeably faster than the other trains).
Our trainride was about 3 hours long which included several stops along the way. We finally reached our destination entering Venice on a long dead-end rail & automobile bridge across the harbor onto the island. I never knew that Venice was actually an island (or a collection of islands) until planning for this trip. Once outside the train station the only forms of transportation are by boat or by foot. We decided to take the "slow boat" to San Marcos Square which makes lots of little stops along the way, much like a city bus.
The views were spectacular, even in the rain! Everywhere you look there is so much potential for great photographs! You could easily get great photos without even trying. Seriously! This is such a picturesque place. Every little side street or canal is just so stunning with it's old rustic charm. In a way it's also sort of like living in a Dr. Susse book. Most of the buildings are slightly leaning one direction or another. Even the tall towers are noticeably tilted.
After locating and checking into our new room (directly off a quaint little piazza), we grabbed our map, umbrellas & cameras and started wandering back into the city, away from the hoards of tourists. We crossed canal after canal, and looked at quite a few old churches. We didn't go inside though since they all charge money to enter here in Venice. Finally we reached the north shore and could see Isola di San Michele (the cemetery island) across the water. Working oru way back down to San Marcos Square we found a little sandwich shop and ordered a caprese (tomato, lettuce and mozerella panini) & a bowl of artichoke ravioli with cream sauce.
We then made the short walk back "home" to dry off and get warm again. After doing another batch of laundry and enjoying a hot cup of hot chocolate, we headed back out to the now fairly empty San Marcos Square to see Venice at night and hopefully find a nice gelato shop.
San Marco's Square at night is a rather unique experience. There are several restaurants on the square who each have their own live orchestra playing music for their respective patrons and potential patrons. Evidently on nice evenings (when it's not wet and raining) couples will dance to the music in the square.
We wandered around this big open square and eventually found a gelatoria, however their selection was not as good as what we had in Florence, but still pretty good. We then strolled back into the city, window shopping and then followed the sounds of music to a small bridge crossing a canal where we listened to the end of a classical music concert in the concert hall next door. Walking back along the waterfront (the Bacino di San Marco) we stopped atop each bridge and took night photos of the buildings, boats and canals...
So far Venice is turning out to be a pretty enchanting little city, especially at night when all the day-tourists are gone!
Italy08vacation
We left our hotel room in rainy Florence this morning and made the long 20 minute walk back to the train station, dodging a sea of oncoming umbrellas and a minefield of water puddles in the cobblestone streets & sidewalks. Once we reached the train station we decided to fork out a few Euros to purchase a second travel-size umbrella since the weather report predicted rain for the rest of today and parts of the next few days...
