Sunday evening in Venice D3.2

After viewing paintings of hell and paradise, I decided to take the vaparetto up the grand canal to the train station and visit the park there. It was lovely to escape the crowds, sit by the fountain, watch the birds and enjoy the shade of the trees for an hour. 

Then I walk back along the canals in a leisurely way. It was so easy to find my way, unlike the first evening. I had a great beer at the Accademia bar where a young busker was playing the bassoon with great elan, and there was a lovely view of the dome of the Santa Maria della Salute. 

I then felt peckish so I wandered to the Corner bar and had some chicchetti and another glass of beer by the canal. It was still hot when I made my way back to the hotel. I watched a family getting out of a water taxi at the Hotel American next door with an amazing number of huge suitcases. 

Then I enjoyed sitting outside on thw now cooler patio, reading and sipping the miracle of water.

Journey to Venice D2.2

It seems like I have a lot to be grateful for on this journey: my seat on the packed train, the helpful receptionist Kia at the Casa Accademia who was there to meet my late arrival, the helpful train conductor, the kind people who guided me and gave me info, the conductor who accepted my ticket for the previous month. I hadn't noticed and neither did he.  

We all had to get off the train and take a bus to Udine. Then I needed two more trains to Venice. It was 9.20 pm when we arrived at Santa Lucia instead of 19.50 and a vaporetto strike had started so the area in front of the train station was full of miserable arrivals like me with luggage. Luckily I was packed for the camino with a rucksack.

Kia had told me about the strike earlier so I was prepared for a 40min hike through the hot and humid city through dark narrow streets: murderer's alleys. Eventually thanks ti google maps and plenty of reroutes I got to the hotel at 10pm. I was absoltutely drenched in sweat, I looked like I had swum there in the canal, and exhausted. I couldn't even find my room on my floor until a mother and daughter helped me find it. I was disappointed at first. My room looked bare, the bed narrow and uncomfortable, the furniture old. It was hot and airless and I thought the aircon wasn't working.

Things were going to get better.