Steps today: 23 253 / 15.33 km
Back on the day-tripping trail! Today, another new city for us: Trieste. We got there around 9:30.
Stopped in at the Serbian Orthodox Church
And then looked for somewhere WARM to sit inside! The plan was coffee because it was only 10:30, but I saw they had Aperol and so, well, far be it for me to resist!
After this, we set off to check sights off the list. So many status all over!!
Roman Amphitheater:
On the way to the castle, I spotted this and wondered if it was like a "Point Zero", but no. Google says it's a well.
Ancient columns - holds NO interest for me. I am done with broken clay pots and rocks on the ground for life. Ever since I went to Greece and overdosed!
The Arco di Riccardo. It dates back to the year 32BC! Amazing. And I love way the modern building was constructed around it.
It was getting close to the time to start looking for a place to have lunch, so we went to huge Piazza Unità d'Italia hoping to find something. Beautiful place - ZERO food options.
Stunning square overlooking the sea, lined on 3 sides with majestic buildings and a fountain too busy with people around it so I didn't get the shot I wanted. I am very fussy LOL
After a long search for food, we FINALY found something... we pounced as soon as we saw it. Why so few places? we MUST have been a few streets away from more, but I was fed up.
After lunch, we walked out to the Old Pier - great views!
Stopped for one last drink, then headed back to Venice.
The plan was to have a nice Goodbye Dinner in St Marc's Square and then take the vaporetto down the Grand Canal back to the train station to make up for the snafu 2 days ago.
First, on our way to St Marc's, we zigged when we should have zagged (almost impossible not to do in Venice) and ended up further away from our destination. We were parched and cranky so this detour didn't help!
When we reached the square, Florian was PACKED! not a single free table to be found, and many people waiting. The reason was that it was in full sun - but the warm comfortable kind, not the hot sweaty kind so seats were in high demand.
By contrast, the cafés on the other side of the square were in the cold windy shade and were deserted. We were so thirsty by then, we didn't want to wait. We threw up our hands and went to Lavena
We were COLD! we even had our hoods up, I had to sit in such a way that I wasn't touching the chair metal... God, we were idiots! Why didn't we just go inside?
The first thing we did, was order water and I think we drank it all in just one gulp. Now, remember where we were!! The restaurants here are stupidly expensive, and we knew it... but still we were so dumb: One 250ml bottle is a whopping 10€! and we had two each because we were so thirsty!! that's 60$CDN spent on water.
We had croissant sandwiches, they were fine, but nothing special for the small fortune they cost.
Before leaving, I said to myself: "what the fuck! Let's get a cocktail for the road" and ordered a Rossini.
This little snapshot was the best moment of the evening.
The plan afterwards like I said, was to take the vaporetto back, but we were cold and feeling broke so when I saw another option for a fast boat back to the train that was cheaper - I took it. THEN we found out the wait was 25 minutes. UGH this was adding so much time to our day! Remember all the time we lost on our detour to get to St Marc's. Frank was getting extra cranky because he was so cold, but at that point I don't think anything short of teleportation would have pleased him.
So, we waited. When the boat came, based on our unlucky evening so far, we wanted to be SURE we were getting on the right boat so we asked the guy helping the people on board: "Ferrovia?"and the snappy, rude, unprofessional, snarky reply we got back shocked me and just set Frank off. The guy replied angrily with a sarcastic tone something like "what did my colleague tell you?" it was like a punch. Frank was so outraged I thought it would lead to an altercation, thankfully it didn't... but I feel it was close.
We FINALY made it to the station, got on the train, and exhaled. It must have been an hour now since we left the restaurant.
I mentioned before that Venice "Proper" (Santa Lucia) and Venice Mestre where our hotel is, is 1 stop. 10 minutes. zip and quick. So, when the train stopped 10 minutes into our ride, we got off.
You know when you do something wrong, your brain doesn't quite click at first and you rationalize details before you realize you've made an error?
Only 2 couples got off the very crowded train - we assumed the crowds just weren't going to Mestre
The platform was very dark - we just assumed we were near the end.
Mestre is quite a large station, yet there were no other trains - we assumed we were on the last platform facing away from the station.
As the train pulled away, the penny dropped and we saw the sign. This was not Mestre, but Porto Marghera!!!
It was DESERTED! This was not a big station like Mestre, but a dinky local non attended station. What to do? Wait for the next train? Will the next train even stop in Mestre? It should in theory - but what if we actually missed Mestre? Where the Hell were we exactly?
I tried to look on a map on my phone to see where we were and determine if Mestre was ahead or behind us, but THAT'S when I didn't get any connection - of course!
Once I stopped panicking, I came to my senses and thought: we are not far from Santa Lucia, let's go back and start over. EVERY train heading in the direction from which we came is going there - so it's the simplest solution.
We saw on the boards that there was a train coming in 2 minutes on another track so we sprinted to catch it.
Back in Santa Lucia, we caught another train and this time we MADE SURE not to get off at the next stop. LOL. How many people have made this mistake? My guess is MANY!!! in fact, on the second train 2 girls thought they missed their stop in Mestre when the doors closed at Porto Marghera!
Bigger question: why did we only notice this NOW that there was a stop in between? It can't be on every route.... was it? I find it incredible we didn't wise up to this fact before. Talk about learning the hard way.
We were exhausted by the time we reached our room - but we had to start packing for our onward journey the next morning. UGH
No rest for the wicked! 😉
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