Italy - Day 8 - Venice

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

I had not originally planned to see Venice on this trip, but after hearing that others had done it in a day from Florence, I figured why not. Since I had not let Clara know that I would be skipping breakfast, I stayed and ate (and that's never a bad thing). After that I caught the 10:38am train and was scheduled to arrive at 1:30pm.

At the train station I ran into Sylvia from Melbourne. Her train was delayed, so we sat and kept each other company while we waited. She had been a dear that morning and given me some throat losenges to help with the sore throat I woke up with, a bad sign of things to come.

I was able to plug-in my laptop on the train which was great because I could write up the summary for a few more days as I traveled. I was also able to work on getting some pictures ready for the web. I had a set of 4 seats all to myself for the whole ride and got to travel through Bologna and Padua before arriving in Venice.

My trick for finding Piaza di San Marco was to head straight south from the St. Luciano station. After winding through the labyrinth of streets for 45 minutes, I managed to find my destination on the south end of the island. I'm glad I had the setting sun to use as a reference. The secret key for navigating through the city is to know that the big yellow signs everywhere point you to the major landmarks, so as long as you follow them and know where they are in relation to one another, you should do all right.

I walked around the waterfront and enjoyed the good weather. It was no colder than Florence has been. I took a number of pictures before grabbing a bite to eat. My victim for lunch was a huge calzone. They are quite different from calzone's in the U.S. due to the very small amount of sauce used in them.

Unfortunately there was some construction going on. Some on the cathedral and some as preparation for the Christmas season. That will make for some slightly less attractive pictures, but that's the way it is sometimes.

I decided to walk back over to the Rialto bridge for sunset and am glad that I was there in the off season, that place must be packed in the summer. Then it was back over to Piaza di San Marco for a few night shots. The piaza at night is very impressive. I would love to come back and stay here just to enjoy the atmosphere.

After a few minutes I had to go. I knew that I would probably get lost looking for the Alle Ferrovia and that's just what happened. I ended up a little to the west of where I wanted to be, but could see the train station and made my over with 30 minutes to spare. Definitely give yourself time to get around this city.

So, after another 44 euro, I was on my way back. The power didn't work on the train this time, so I was only able to do 2 days worth of write ups on the charge I had left. I think I got some good pictures on this trip and I am very glad I decided to go over for the day.

click here to see all the pictures from Venice gallery

I let Clara know that I would not be there for breakfast in the morning and was able to post the write-ups for day 3 and day 4 before going to sleep by 1am.

Tomorrow will be early as I head over to La Spezia and then to the Cinque Terre.

-END DAY 8-
Click here to see day 7
Click here to see day 9

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