Venice -> Florence

Goodbye Venice:

I booked our train tickets online, and the train was scheduled to leave at 8:40am.  I purposely booked that time because I wanted to have a nice full "included" breakfast at hotel before we leave.  That way we can save money for food later on.  The hotel's breakfast doesn't open until 7:30am.  So we pretty much waited to have breakfast right at 7:30am.  After a nice breakfast buffet, we walked to the boat station to take the #1 Vaporetto Boat to the train station.

Venice's main transportation -  Vaporetto ACTV

It took me a while to figure out how to use the ticket machine, I even went to ask a local how to buy tickets.  The local said it seems like the machine didn't work.  When the boat came, I still couldn't buy the tickets, so I asked the local lady to help translating our situation to the staff.  We got on to the boat anyway, and the staff said he couldn't take the money and he just closed the gate.  The boat started moving, so we got a free ride to the train station: Venezia Santa Lucia

Venice's main train station: Venice Santa Lucia

The train station was only 3 minutes walk from the Line 1 boat station.

Venice - last night in Venezia

Last night in Venezia was even more quieter than the first night.  Having dinner right beside the canal should be quite romantic.  We weren't that hungry after the tiny snack from St. Mark's square (San Macro).  There were night gondola rides available, I heard it was more expensive.  I don't think there's much to see at night; it was so dark everywhere along the canal.  There were hardly lights, especially the smaller alleys and smaller canals.  I guess it could be more mysterious.

Display of the Venetian Seafood

bits and pieces at night

The alleys in Venice were so narrow, the most narrowest street in Paris couldn't compare.  The government did such a good job to preserve all the buildings and streets so vintage.  

The vending machine for cigarettes.  No ID needed.  How convenient for the smokers.  I'm glad they don't have this anymore in Canada.

During our walk back to the hotel, we saw a group of young people doing crazy things for their bachelor party.  I saw this guy who wore a big paper sign with a hole in it.  I believe he didn't wear a pant.  I didn't really walk closer to have a closer look.  I was too distracted walking by a dead rat right in the middle of the road.  I didn't know how the rat just died in the middle of the road, I wonder if it was stepped by someone, because it looked like it had been pressed and there were no cars nor bikes in Venice.  

There were millions of bridges in Venice, they were all nicely built.  So arties.  We got hungry again and we didn't want to spend that much money,  so we just walked back to the hotel's snack room and filled our stomach with their snacks.  Their selection of drinks was pretty awesome.

One thing I should have done and I missed it: I should have tried their Tiramisu.  I heard the Venetian Tiramisu is quite unique, and all Italian cities have their own unique ways of making Tiramisu.   But I find all restaurants have different textures and taste of tiramisu in Italy, because they all have their own homemade recipes.  But Tiramisu and cappuccino are must try when you travel to Italy :)

Venice - UNA Hotel Venezia

Hotel selection:
We researched so many hotels, and we picked this :) The room was very clean and elegantly furnished. A lot of other hotels in Venice looked kind of old, we were looking for a convenient location and a clean washroom.

Washroom basic in Italy:
Most washrooms in Italy have two "toilets", but the second one is not really a toilet, it's a bidet.  The purpose of the bidet is to clean off the back/butt after using the toilet.  Italians really enjoy their time in their washrooms, so usually they keep them very clean. (learn how to use a bidet)

It was hard to shower for me, as you could tell the bath tub only had half of the glass.  I still don't get the purpose of that.  Most hotels in Italy didn't provide hair conditioners, they only provided shampoo and soap.  We had to call for conditioner separately, along with bath ropes and bath salt :)  They provided a list for us if we needed any extra supplies.  Pretty good service.

The room was quite expensive, probably about $200-250 Cad per night.  They didn't have free internet; internet was $14.95/day.

Common area:

Lounge: breakfast buffet and happy hours that provided free goodies

The lounge was amazing.  It opened from 7:30am - 10:30am for excellent breakfast buffet.  Then the lounge was re-opened from 2:30pm - 10pm for happy hours where they provided free pastries, coffee, drinks, alcohol, fruits, water....etc.  Water in Europe was very expensive!  Their yoga juice was super good, so fruity and smooth.  We kept drinking them and took a few bottles when we went out for the day!

Expresso machine was available with illy capsules.....pretty good! except the foam function didn't really work....

We would definitely come back for this hotel, only at a reasonable price!  Hotels on the actual island were usually quite expensive, but it was well worth it for us.  The hotel was located away from the main tourist area, we like the quietness.   The location of the hotel was quite convenient that we always walked back when we forgot something.

Venice - Arrival

Venice - First day:

Once we arrived at the airport, the wait for the luggages was pretty quick.  I researched for several commute options to our hotel.  We could get there by bus, water taxi or by boat.  I originally picked the bus one.  I went to the information centre to ask for directions to our hotel, and the counter person told me it was best to go by boat.  Why? Because if we took the bus, we eventually had to take the boat anyway, so why not just take the boat from the beginning? Right, points taken.  So we bought the boat tickets for 15 Euro each.  We walked to the port, but we didn't know which boat to get on and which station we needed to get off from.  One of the staff searched it online for us and told us to get off at the second station.  I was surprised I couldn't find any map on the way, I probably missed it somewhere.

So we got on to the bus, and everyone had a map out.  I had nothing.  So basically we just knew we had to get off at the second stop and then we had to figure our way to the hotel in Venice.  For those of you who had been to Venice.......You would understand the frustration.

We passed by the Murano, the island that is well known for their glass making.  We weren't interested after glancing at the island.  Once we got off the boat.... The streets were empty.  There was nobody to ask.  There were only a few tourists looking for directions.  We walked back and forth to see if there's any big direction map.  NOPE.

very Vintage and quiet...super dead

Hey, here! We found a local:

Meow~

We were so lost, we didn't know where we were.  I had no choice but taking out my iPhone and google map where we were and searched for the walking distance to the hotel.  ROAMING DATA.  We searched a couple of times and figured we were only 5 minutes walk from our hotel.  1.4MB of data costed me $47 canadian dollars - a 5 seconds click........

We had to carry our luggages to cross two bridges...there were no bikes nor cars (so make sure you pack light)

Near our hotel, super quiet

There we were! After all the frustration, we finally found our hotel!

We were looking for some big hotel signage.  It was hard to find in the beginning.  Good that we had the street number.  I guess they would to keep the vintage look of the island.  The whole island looked very vintage.  There were hardly any locals walking in the streets.  A lot of the buildings looked empty.   It was quite quiet.  We read that those from most tour groups and cruises don't stay overnights on the Venice island, that's why it was so quiet at night in Venice.  

Once we checked in, we got the gift from heaven (free):

gift from HEAVEN!

Moral of the day: MUST GET A MAP IN VENICE