Italy #16
Yesterday we had a longish train ride. The first part was the milk run and the train wasn't airconditioned. The second one was thank goodness. Hot here. We arrived in Venice to be hit by the muggy heat. We were both drenched in no time. We found a ticket booth and bought our 72 hour vaporetto (like a water bus) tickets. A short ride brought us to our stop with the hotel just minutes away. Our room is over the market which is quiet luckily. The hotel is very old and the rooms are a bit of a come down from our last ones! We are in a small room with not much space to put things. Our bathroom/shower is down the hall and we are sharing with two other rooms. But I'm not complaining as more creature comforts would mean big bucks in this city.
The canals are neat and we like to watch the gondolas go by. Also the water taxis -- very long jet boats that cruise around looking for passengers. We've used the vaporettos a lot so are getting our money's worth. Plus we do a lot of walking and getting lost which is the recommended activity here. We eat off the main canal as it's much cheaper. But one must watch where one orders a coffee! We shared a good pizza for supper last night for E10 but Eleanor paid E4,50 for her capp! Most places charge a fee of at least E2 for just sitting at a table and giving you bread. By the way, forgot to mention that having wine with supper isn't much more than having water. Eg. water E1 and wine E1,80.
Today we "did" St. Mark's Square seeing the Correr Museum, the Basilica and the Doge`s Palace. All very worthwhile. Found a neat lunch spot -- cafeteria style and if you eat it standing at the little round tables very cheap. Cappacinos were E1,50 and the sandwiches delicious and different.
Breakfast is minimal here so we buy fruit at the market. Our last place didn`t have fruit either except for a bit of canned. Speaking of fruit. Several times up in the mountain we had delicious fresh fruit then would get canned fruit cocktail at the B&B. Strange.
Will stop for now. Are going to look for some supper.
I'm back and it's now 11 pm. We've had supper then wandered the streets again. Some are only as wide as a sidewalk. We go down lots of dead ends to find neat gardens or restaurants or just nothing.
The city is hopping tonite. We had our "sightseeing" vaparetto ride but had trouble getting a seat outside. Very busy. The canal is choppy with so many boats going back and forth.
A Rick Steves' tour is staying here for 3 nights. They are in a different section.
We got the odd whiff today of sewer. It's surprisingly fresh as there is often a breeze.