Day 2 - Saturday, June 15 - In Venice

Our flight to Venice was uneventful, a bit bumpy much of the way but not enough to be a problem. We had splurged on the "sleeper" seats which were helpful in getting more rest.

Customs at the Marco Polo airport were exceptionally efficient. We just put our passport into a reader, then looked into a camera and then had our passport stamped. It only took a few minutes.

From the airport there is a moving walkway to the harbor where we caught our pre-arranged boat ride to Venice. We thought it would be a larger shuttle but it was just a regular "taxi" packed full. The capacity is supposed to be 10 people but there were 11 on board. There was so much luggage stacked up by the driver, that people couldn't get out in case of an emergency.

The driver had asked people what hotels they were going to so that he could stack the luggage in the order it would be taken. We were in one of the first hotels so we boarded last. We were quite surprised when he went right past our hotel and dropped everyone else off before turning around and retracing the route back to our hotel about 40 minutes later!  It was interesting getting an informal tour. Each time someone got off, he had to toss the suitcases around in order to get the ones for the people getting off. Fortunately there was nothing fragile in our suitcases! The taxi let us off at a landing just a few feet from the entrance to our hotel, the Carlton Grand Hotel - couldn't have been more convenient.

There are no wheeled vehicles of any sort in Venice. The only way around is via taxi (expensive) or the vaparettos, basically water buses. Walking with luggage is a challenge as each of the "blocks" is bounded by small canals with bridges connecting them. There are porters who will transport your luggage - it is really something to see them loaded with suitcases going up steep bridges.

We got to the hotel at 11:30 which was too early to check in so we spent the next 2 1/2 hours wandering around. It can be a bit confusing getting around the maze of alleys and walkways but we discovered that many of the buildings have signs with arrows pointing in key directions like towards the train station or towards the Rialto Bridge and Saint Mark's Plaza (Piazza San Marco). Our hotel is opposite the train station so it was easy to find our way back.

Our room has a little balcony overlooking the Grand Canal, the train station (not so scenic) and a beautiful large church on the other side. Gondolas are docked just in front of the hotel. The docks for the vaparettos are just on the other side. The wall coverings in our room are interesting. It looks like wallpaper but is actually fabric - it is soft to the touch.

Our friends Scott and Jeanne are staying at a smaller hotel just around the corner from us, only about two minutes away. We have 72 hour transport passes so we decided to take the vaporetto to San Marco to look around and then have dinner there. The vaporetto went past the cruise ship terminal which is immense and then along the outer part of "downtown" Venice. Close to the square, it seemed that the cafes only served appetizers and drinks but we were looking for a more substantial meal since we hadn't eaten since breakfast on the plane. We finally found a restaurant which was pricier than we were interested but we were getting desperate. Unfortunately, the maitre d' looked at my shorts and said we weren't suitably attired!

We then decided to head back to the area around our hotel for dinner and found a nice restaurant on the canal across from our hotel. It was almost 10pm by the time we got to the restaurant. We had pizzas that were quite good with Valpolicella red wine and finished it off with tiramisu and coffee, a delightful meal It was amazing to think that less than 24 hours before we were sitting at the airport in Newark.

Around 11pm we returned to our hotel and tumbled into bed.

Map of Venice showing our hotel

Our hotel room


View from our room

Porter going up bridge

Gondolas from Rialto Bridge

Full moon over San Giorgio Maggiore, from Piazza San Marco

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