Italy - Day 8 - May 7, 2019

Today we traveled to Venice! We set up a taxi that took us to the train station in Poggibonsi. That was a “local” train that took jus back to Florence. Once in Florence, we hopped on a high speed train that would take us to Venice. 

The high speed trains are much nicer (even the bathrooms!). We had assigned seats and I tried to read but got distracted by the gentlemen sitting across the aisle from us. I heard one guy say “Prince William was at my mom’s for dinner once”. And after that, they had my full attention. 

The train took us straight into Venice!  There was a bridge that crossed the water and it was really

The view from our hotel

fun! When you leave the train station, you walk right out onto the Grand Canal, and it looked just like every photo of Venice you've ever seen, there was no build up, you were just in it! We avoided the pushy cart guys (luggage porters) and go tin line for a water taxi to our hotel. Steve figured out the stops and where we needed to go, thank goodness. We got off our taxi and drug our luggage through the uneven streets. Again thanks to Steve’s navigation we made it to our hotel. Our hotel was right on one of the canals, which was so cute. We got to our room and it was one of the apartment rooms, what that means is that there were two full bathrooms, and one of the bathrooms had a normal shower! All of our hotels had the small showers, but had towel warmer, so that made up for it. Our view was right over the canal where you could see all the people walking around and in the gondolas.  

After we settled in, we head out to find food, which was priority number one in each city we visited. While walking around, we found a place that had big open windows with giant pizzas! Steve had salami pizza and I had olive fracchicia with a glass of white wine. We were both pleased, but knew we’d need more food later. 

We then wandered around a bit until we found San Marco Square. Venice was busy with tourists, but not as fast paced as Florence. One of the first things we noticed, is that Venice has many statues of a lion, all over the place. A quick google search told us that it is called "The Lion of Venice" and represents St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice. Near the water, gondolas were lined up on the water and they are very pretty in person. Though, the cost for a half hour ride during the day (it's more at night) was 90 euro. Steve and I decided it was not worth the cost to ride in one, but they were still really fun to see. 

Venice is a really great city to just meander around. There is a lot to see, and it is very colorful. We made our way across the Rialto Bridge to the other side of the Grand Canal, and everything was just a great. There were many little plazas with flowers growing up the walls. We happened upon a small orchestra practicing outside and there were performers in the windows and doors around the square. It was really unique and such a wonderful thing to just stumble upon. 

We started to get hungry again so Steve began to search some good restaurants near us. We decided on a very small restaurant nearby. In our time in Italy, most locals we encountered spoke English, without us even asking. The gentleman at this restaurant did not speak English, so Steve finally got to use all the things he practiced before we left! I got a small pasta dish and Steve got some kind of mushroom chicken dish. He also chose from some toast with toppings from a case in the front. It was super yummy! 

After dinner, we went back towards San Marco, and enjoyed the city at night. There is a nice shoreline where you can see the other two islands of Venice, Murano and Buranno. Murano is where they make glass and the buildings looked so colorful. 

The first day in Venice was great! Steve and I went back to the hotel to research our activities for our last day in Italy!