Italy Day 10 - Florence to Venice (01 May 2007)

** Historical Post **
The day started well enough. We had a light breakfast at the hotel and lugged our bags down four flights of stairs to the street. We made our way back to the train station, stopping to buy some water and pins. We got to the station and to the ticket counter. When we asked for tickets, the agent said, "No tickets to Venice today." Our stomachs sank. I asked if there was a later train. The computer said, "No." I asked if there was a bus or any other way to get to Venice. Finally the agent told up to just get on the train and to find a seat. We'd have to pay €8 extra since we did not have a reservation. It sounded risky, but we really didn't have much choice. We stood around for half an hour waiting to find out what track the train would come in on. About 10 minutes before the train arrived, we found out the track. We headed that direction, along with about 100 other people. We managed to get on the train, but then had to search for seats. We eventually found 2 seats together and with luck, were able to keep them. After that, the train ride was quiet and smooth. We made it to Venice and immediately made reservations for our train back to Rome. We them debated buying a three day pass for the vaporetto (the Venice bus system.) We finally decided to get it for €30. A single ride normally costs €6. We hopped on line 1 and were at the San Angelo stop in about 20 minutes. Our hotel was about a 5 minute walk from there. We again found ourselves climbing a ton of stairs to the lobby, them more to the room. The room itself was very small, but clean and nicely decorated. We dropped off our bags and set out to see some of Venice. We walked to Piazza San Marco, them took a tour of the islands using the vaporetto system. The 3 day pass paid for itself very quickly. Venice is a series of islands in a large lagoon. A lot of the islands are connected by bridges, while others are farther away and can only be reached by boat. We rode out to Lido, the resort island, then took a vaporetto around the northern parts of the lagoon. From the boat we could see a good number of the other islands. We rode up and down the grand canal and took more than enough pictures to fully document everything. We had dinner at a restaurant near our hotel in Campo San Stefano. The pasta was good, but the meat was not the best. The pork was under cooked and the chicken was over cooked. The gelato was good though. After dinner. We called it a day.