Italy 2024 - Day 4 / Venice

Steps today: 21 385 / 14.1 km

We changed home bases today: off to Venice now!

When it comes to trains, I like to buy my tickets in advance for days where we change home-bases. For day-trips we prefer to be more last minute but on days when we move with bags, I feel more organized if I have the tickets done in advance.

SO glad I went to the trouble to reserve a window seat! ha!

Instead of staying in "Venice Proper" we booked a hotel in Mestre which is just 10 minutes away, 1 train stop. It costs 1€45 to get to Venice and there are multiple trains per hour. All the trains that go to Venice from wherever stop in Mestre; very simple. Our hotel was a 4-minute walk from the station so the whole set-up was ideal.

We got to our hotel just after 11AM, but unfortunately the room wasn't ready, so we left our bags and got back on the train to Venice to enjoy the day.

This is our 5th visit to Venice, 10 years since the last time so I was excited! (2003, 2007, 2008, 2014) I love how as soon as you exit the train station - the Grand Canal is right there in front of you!

First on the agenda: SPRITZ! it sucked. Worst one of the trip. Not enough spritz and heavy undiluted Aperol isn't yummy...  but I was parched and it did the job.

How do you go sightseeing in Venice? You just get lost. It's a warren of streets and bridges and dangerous dead-ends that just drop off into the water. Narrow lanes that open up into piazzas, hidden churches and endless beautiful sights.

So, that's what we did on the way to find lunch near the Rialto Bridge.

Lunch was great, I know it's touristy, but I like meals and drinks with views over the "Big Sights". I had to lean over and dodge the tourists to get a shot of the Rialto Bridge from my table, but there it was! 

Next, I wanted to visit Saint Marc's Basilica if the line-up was manageable. In 2003, we arrived just after the High Water and it hadn't completely receded yet so we could only visit parts of the church and walk along planks. In 2007 we visited it "properly", so after 17 years I wanted to see it again. Luck was on my side! No line ups at all! We practically walked right in. 

The Basilica is amazing if you love Mosaics like I do - incredible! It's hard for me to narrow down the images to post...  so. much. glitter!!!!

Next, it was time to blow the budget and have a drink at the café in the square. We knew what we were in for price-wise. Having drinks here is NOT CHEAP! It costs 6€ just to sit down! but I rationalize it by saying the views and the music are all part of the price.

This little itty bitty "splash" of a drink was 25€ - a true treat!

After this, we just wandered aimlessly.

Around 4PM, there was a huge downpour which trapped us against a wall. We tried to find better shelter, and did towards the end of the deluge but we got quite soaked due to the huge gusts of cold, horizontal wind. 

Within an hour, the sun was out again and we continued wandering.

Supper:

After supper, we decided to call it quits and head back to the hotel - we still needed to check in and unpack, ugh. We caught a train at 7ish, meaning we'd be back at the hotel by 715 / 720...  but the train was over an hour late! Apparently, the storm did some damage to some tracks and as we later discovered: the delays lasted into the following days! As it was, we got to the room just before 9PM - we were DONE FOR!

(it wasn't this light outside at 8:45PM, the picture of the building was taken when we dropped off the bags at 11AM)

It didn't take long to fall asleep that night!