Goodbye Florence! We will miss your beauty, charm and gelato!
Today was a travel day. We enjoyed a leisurely morning of breakfast at the Hotel, then upstairs to pack and check out. It was now around 11:00am and we were off to the train station to catch the train to Venice. As I mentioned before our Hotel was a mere 300 meters from the train station, so not a long walk.
We caught the 11:25am train to Venice and settled into our second class seats for the two hour train ride. As comfortable as the train was, I alternated between reading and sleeping. Soon we were in Venice. One of my favorite of all the cities I have visited so far in my life. We left the train station and headed outside to catch a vaporetto (water bus) to our Hotel.
We bought a 36 Hour pass for the vaporetti and we were on our way to the Hotel. To say Venice is a picturesque city is an understatement. At every turn I was taking a photo. The combination of boats, canals, buildings, bridges and monuments makes it ideal for the amateur photographer.
Our Travel Agent had told us that our Hotel was close to the vaporetto stop. When we got off the vaporetto we were on the doorstep of our hotel. Now I call that close! We checked into our charming little hotel to a room on the second floor with no elevator. I don't mind stairs but not a lot of fun with luggage to carry. The room's electricity only operates while the key is in a special wall/light switch unit so there is no leaving the Air Conditioning on while you are out and coming back to a nice cool room. Especially when it is 86 degrees outside with 66% humidity. We settled into our room a little bit and then set out for the Piazzo San Marco map in hand. We wandered down streets and alleyways, over bridges and across piazzas. Taking pictures everywhere we went.
We finally reached Piazza San Marco...with all the other tourists. Time for more photos...
Time to wind our way back to the Hotel and find a little cafe off the beaten path to have dinner. We found a place not too far away that had indoor seating and Air Conditioning! The menu had photos of every dish, so ordering was easy. I had Pizza Margherita. The also had my favorite Lemon Soda. Just what I needed to quench my thirst and cool me down a bit.
After dinner we hopped on the vaporetto and headed back to the Hotel. Without the Air Conditioning going the entire time we were gone, the room was almost as hot as it is outside. It's going to be an interesting three nights sleeping (or not sleeping) in this room. Takes me back to my non air conditioned childhood in Sacramento, California where it would regularly get above 105 degrees. And with the heat as bad as it was, we didn't have one gelato today. We'll need to make up for that tomorrow.
Tomorrow we explore the islands of Murano and Burano. Hopefully the weather and humidity will cool down a bit. I'm beginning to look forward to boarding our heavily air conditioned Norwegian Cruise Lines ship, the Jade, on Saturday.
Buonanotte
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