Reviving Venice
Post date: 17-Oct-2009 20:05:16
For our 5th eurorail journey, we took the train to and from Venice for a day trip. We had to pay $28.00 euro each way on top of our eurorail pass because reservations were mandatory on the trains we took. The reservation cost $20.00 euro and then we had to pay an 8 euro penalty for not making the reservation ahead of time. There are so many rules about the trains in each city.I think if we travelled by train more often we could master the system.
We arrived to a rainy day in Venice. It somehow seemed fitting to see it raining when we're on a
water island.We crossed the Rialto bridge in the thunder and lightning storm and through the thick rain took in the crayon coloured buidlings. It was great to follow the maze in between the buildings and then pop out onto a canal. It was lethargic to wander over the many bridges. Each bridge tightens your gluts too because they all have stairs on each side.
We toured the Museo e Archivo Storico which was a museum of gondola trophies and photos. It was really neat. We mostly toured it because we had to use the bathroom and it only cost 1 euro to tour the museum and use the bathroom.
We found one geocache and we also found my Italian rubber ducks in a neat gadget and shoe store. I bought two more mini Bud rubber ducks. They also had a duck timer, a Japanese duck and huge Bud ducks. There were so many ducks to choose from.
Most of the stores sold various glass figurines. We saw Santa in a gondola and many Pinocchios. I bought a small glass rubber duck. In one store we even saw a guy making the glass figurines. There were also many stores that sold beautiful masks. We would have loved to buy a mask for Colin's mom but there is no way we could have transported it home in once piece.
Colin was also a hero twice today. We were walking along by the water and peered in between some buildings to see a couple madly waving at us. They had somehow gotten locked in a square on the other side of an art museum. we went inside and found a lady. She kept yelling at Colin that the museum is closed and to go away. He kept pointing to his eyes and saying he needed help and needed to show her something. Eventually, the lady finally got up and realized that people were trapped in her closed building. We also saw a lost elderly couple from Toronto trying to read the Venice map. we stopped and used Colin's GPS to help them find which way to walk to their hotel.
We enjoyed some awesome calzones on the way home on the train.
You can view the rest of our beautiful 149 pictures of Venice here: