Venice Day 1

This morning we made our way to the train station after breakfast to catch a train to Venice. In Florence, they have porters take your bags back and forth to the hotel and you walk to the station without dragging a suitcase across a skinny stone sidewalk. When we first arrived it seemed strange, but after watching people struggle all week, I’m glad we had that service. 

We took another bullet train to Venice. It took about 2 hours and was comfortable. When arrived in Venice, we got off the train and gave our bags to porters again. This time, they put our suitcases on a boat and brought them to our hotel. We took a water taxi to our hotel area. We aren’t staying close to the main canal so we had to walk a little also. 

Venice is made up of over 100 islands and has over 400 bridges connecting them. The streets aren’t remotely grid like so it’s very easy to get lost. After checking into the hotel, we found food. I had I gnocchi with shrimp and Mom had pasta. We wandered around for a few hours before meeting our evening food tour. 

The food tour was appetizer themed. We stopped at 4 places and had a glass of wine and a small bite at each place. Everything was delicious. Before our first stop, our guide took us on a gondola to cross the canal. Instead of putting us on an over priced touristy one, we got on one the locals use to cross quickly. All 12 of us crammed on board and stood the whole way (like locals). We had prosecco, sparkling red wine, and everything in between. We are squid cooked in its ink over polenta, and different crostini. Everything was SO good and we all had a lot of fun together. 

After the food tour, we got on a water bus to take the long way around the canal to see more of Venice from the water. It was beautiful. We grabbed dinner in the hotel restaurant and went to bed. It was a long day!