This year was my wife Eileen and my 25th Wedding Anniversary, so we decided to go to Italy for 17 days in June - spending our actual anniversary in Florence. I decided not to take my laptop with me, so I wasn't able to blog while we were traveling, so I am now taking the opportunity to tell the story of our "Italy 2008" trip.
Much better sleep although we were woken up twice during the night by phones. Eileen's niece-in-law Donna called Eileen at 1am - she hadn't realized we were away, and my (newly charged) phone decided to fire off all my appointment reminders for the next day - I hadn't updated the clock for the time-zone yet.
Milano Centrale FS railway station
We got up at 7am again, packed, had breakfast and checked out by 8:30am. Our train to Venice was due to leave at 10:05 from the Centrale station. We walked to the Cordiuso Metro station to catch the metro to Centrale FS. We arrived in plenty of time for our train, which pulled into the station at ~9:30. We were in the first carriage, but that meant walking to the far end of the platform.
Seats 45 and 46 in carriage 10 - window seats in a compartment of 6 seats. Two nice Italian couples were also in the compartment - both on their way to Venice, one couple to join a 7-day cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean and one couple for a weekend in Venice. One of the women had some English so acted as translator.
Arrived at Venice about 1:20. Caught the express Vaporetto to Rialto Bridge, and set off to find our hotel - Casa Santa Maria Formosa. Got lost a few times, but we eventually found the hotel - the outside was covered in scaffolding - not a good sign. Checked in and found the room is tiny - barely enough space to walk around the bed. The receptionist tries to up-sell us to a larger room for an extra 30 Euros a night - we decide that we can manage for two nights.
Eileen at the Bridge of Sighs
We unpack and then head out for an afternoon in Venice. Lunch at a cafe in the Campo Santa Maria Formosa - just around the corner from the hotel. Walked to St. Mark's Square - we again got lost - but we do eventually reached the square.
I had again booked a tour - actually two tours this time from a local English-speaking company - Avventure Bellissime. This afternoon we had a Grand Canal tour.
We wandered around St. Mark's Square and found the garden on the Canal side where we due to meet our tour. We were divided into groups of 8, each with our guide in a Venetian Water-Taxi. The tour was great, even though it rained for about 10 minutes. We even got a glass of Spumante.
When we got back to St. Mark's Square it was just before 6 pm. In Italy restaurants don't open for dinner until 7 or 7:30 so we needed to find something to do. There was no line at the Doge's Palace, so we decided that would make a good time filler. Quite impressive rooms - loads of renaissance art on the walls - but no furnishings - much like Versailles.
Headed for the Rialto area for dinner - the Rick Steves suggestion we were headed for was a little too fishy for us, so we tried the "Trattoria a la Madonna" next door, where we had the first pasta of the trip. After dinner, we explored the Rialto area - some shops were still open, before heading back to the hotel.
Images on the Grand Canal tour |
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