After my little side trip into parts of Florence I'd never intended on going (see Day Six), we got into taxis and headed off to the train station, where we boarded a EuroStar Train that would take us the three hour trip to Venice. The EuroStar was the only train we took where you could get assigned seats. If you ride the EuroStar, make sure that you do this! The train was jam packed, and a lot of people who just had a EuroRail pass were in there. I felt bad bumping someone out of a seat, but hey, it was my assigned seat. I paid good money for that! The EuroStar itself was also the most "American" of the trains, with big padded seats and such. The best part of the train ride was at the end, when you leave the land behind and are suddenly rocketing across a bridge and into Venice. Just about everyone knows that Venice has canals through the entire city. It didn't really sink in that this meant not only no cars, but no mopeds or bicycles as well. The only ways to get around on Venice are on the various types of boats, or on foot. The most common way to get from one end of Venice to the other is on the vaporetti, which are essentially a bunch of buses. Also in Venice's canals are the traghetti and the gondolas. Traghetti are like gondola taxis—they're very inexpensive and are what the locals use to get around on short hops. I'm sure I don't have to explain what a gondola is, but I will mention that a gondola ride is really expensive! I saw a small handful of motorized boats while we were there (mostly used to transport people to and from the train station of Ferrovia to their hotels). After we got off the train, my mother told all of us repeatedly that we were going to take a vaporetto to the Rialto, which was near our hotel. The line to get onto the vaporetto was packed, and using years of grocery store experience I pushed my way onto the boat. Melissa was right behind me (she lives in Manhattan, she's used to this), and a minute later my mother got on as well (she teaches elementary school children, need I say more?). Naturally, it was at that point the boat left. (Oops!) My mother was worried that my father and Suzanne wouldn't know what to do. Melissa and I both assured her that they were smart and would figure out to get on the next boat heading in our direction. Our boat went through a couple of stops... and it was at that point that I looked at the map a bit more carefully. We were heading in the wrong direction! (Oops!, the sequel.) We got off the vaporetto at the next stop and waited for the next one to come along, one which sure enough had Suzanne and Dad on board. They'd noticed that we were on the wrong vaporetti line as well but figured that they'd catch up with us before turning around. We finally got on the right vaporetto and took it to the Rialto. The Rialto is one of the largest and certainly the most famous bridge in Venice. Only three bridges go over the main canal, and the Rialto is one of them. There are shops all up and down the bridge (sort of like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence) and it's supposedly a very romantic spot, not that I'd know on this trip! Our hotel was just a couple of blocks away from the Rialto, and it was absolutely wonderful. It had a really nice (incredibly nice—I can't stress this enough) staff, it had hot water, a real bathroom, fluffy towels instead of the paper-thin sheets-pretending-to-be-towels they'd given us up until now. In terms of interiors, this was my favorite hotel on our trip. (The best hotel exterior is yet to come.) Our hotel was right next to the fish and meat markets, which was actually fun and not disgusting as one might think. You can't smell the fish in the hotel... for that matter, Venice in general did not smell like so many people warn you about. This could have been because we were there in April rather than July. All of that stagnant water in the heat of the summer is no doubt a little pungent, but in the cool temperatures of April it's not bad. Anyway, the markets were fun to wander through; in big grocery store chains at home, you just don't get things like pig heads in the windows. GREG IS ALMOST ROBBED, PART III We got back onto a vaporetto and took it to San Marco (Saint Mark's), Melissa and I snapping pictures as we went along the canal. As the weather was amazingly sunny and clear (how this happened was beyond me—I thought we'd ended up on the "week and a half of clouds and rain" tour) I'd left my jacket in the hotel, so I had the fanny pack on to store my camera. We got off the vaporetto, I reached back into my fanny pack—no camera! I ran back onto the vaporetto (my mother right behind me) and there was no sign of it. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! After besting the Rome and Florence children, someone had finally done it. A minute later I discovered that I'd accidentally shoved the camera into another pouch that I hadn't noticed before in the fanny pack, and no one had stolen it after all. (Oops!, Part III. What is it with us and the vaporetti?) The rest of my family ribbed me about this for a good hour or two, needless to say. San Marco is, as you may have heard, Pigeon Central. Hundreds of pigeons cluster in the plaza, ones who have no qualms about landing right on you if you've got food. Unable to resist, Suzanne bought some food and suddenly she was Queen of the Pigeons. Melissa, Dad, and I finally took some food from her bag and fed them as well. It was a strange and slightly unsettling experience, with pigeon claws and flapping wings all around you. It was hard not to flinch when they landed right on you. San Marco's was already closed, so we went up into the bell tower instead. This was a great idea as it turned out, since it's one of the few places that you can get a really good view of Venice. We were looking around, admiring the view, when two of the mammoth bells started ringing. At five feet away, you can actually feel the notes vibrate through your body. It was a neat feeling, if a little deafening. Dinner was at a very non-tourist restaurant, Vecio Fritolin. It was great—we had great starters of gnocchi with sausage and homemade pasta with assorted vegetables. My main dish was cuttlefish in a black sauce that looked like ink (but it was tasty ink if that was the case). My mother got the cuttlefish as well and wasn't so crazy about it, but my sisters and father got the salmon and sea bass which also got good comments from them. If you like seafood and want to avoid a tourist-filled restaurant, this is a place. I'm pretty sure we were the only non-Venezians in the building. After dinner we just walked for a bit. Venice isn't a big nightlife city, so it was
really peaceful and relaxing to just walk over the small bridges and look at the water. By
the time we headed back to the hotel I was actually glad I can't speak
Italian—because otherwise I'd have no excuse not to move to Venice. I knew at that
point that Venice would be my favorite stop on our trip. |
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