Wednesday 9 October – Rome to Venice

Our taxi turned up about five minutes before time. It cost 10 euros less than the trip from Roma Termini station to the bnb on Sunday, so we realised the driver took us for a ride at 30 euros! He certainly didn’t go on the direct route we went today. We were rather early for the train, so we had a coffee (always almost cold over here!!) with a pastry and we bought some delicious looking slices of pizza for lunch on the train. Back in the terminal, we browsed a couple of shops, Jenny bought a handbag and we headed for our train.

The digital ticket worked and soon we were on the train. Luggage is a problem on these super fast trains – no luggage compartment, so a sixth angel, an older gentleman was kind enough to lift our heavy bags up onto the overhead luggage rack. In no time we were relaxed and enjoying the scenery flashing past at 250 km/hour. The trip was comfortable and a very pleasant few hours and before we knew it, we had arrived at Santa Lucia Station in the lagoon city of Venice. I had a wonderful feeling of anticipation as I led the way out of the station to that first view of the Grand Canal – Jenny’s first taste of the canal city: magic!

 It 

was lovely cruising along on the ferryat 11kph (max allowed for ferries and for boats it’s 7kph), enjoying seeing Jenny taking it all in. We met our host at the Rialto stop and he walked us around to the bnb, up and down steps and bridges with our bags! The entrance led us up a narrow, winding staircase of about 20 steps, which was very difficult with the bags. Gabriele helped and has promised to come back on Saturday to help with our exit.

We changed and after grabbing a few things from our bags went out to look around the near streets, going as far as the other side of the Rialto Bridge. We looked at lots of shops and decided where we will buy a canolo (for me) and some produce tomorrow. We also found a nice bottle of wine to accompany the pizza we had left over from Rome Station. Dinner was yummy, the wine had quite a kick, even with a small glass, followed by dessert of Holy Chocolate! and soon it was bed time. We’re looking forward to a lovely day of exploring tomorrow.