To Venice

Part 9:  To Venice

Sunday, October 29.  We have bus and train tickets, bags packed, and are up early and ready to catch the 10:10 “rapido” bus to Florence. It’s a 90 minute ride that will give us plenty of time to eat and catch the 2:30 train to Venice.  The weather report forecasts rain.  But we’re Portlanders, what’s a little rain.

How about a torrent, a deluge?  On the 10 minute walk to the bus station at Piazza Gramsci it came.  This was not Portland style rain.  The bus will be here in 30 minutes and we spend most of that in this little shelter with about 10 other people.

 

"I think this is our bus."

In 30 minutes “a” bus comes. Is it ours?  I am looking for “Tiemme,” the company that runs the bus we are supposed to catch.  This is not a “Tiemme” bus, and as it pulls into the station the driver changes the destination sign to “Siena.”  Nope, this isn’t our bus.  The driver opens the baggage doors and lets people climb on board.  Just to be sure I go to him and show him my ticket, just after he’s closed the baggage doors. He waves me away.  So I think this is not our bus.

 

I join Bonnie back under the shelter.  The bus pulls away.  We are the only ones left.  In a couple of minutes we both get bad vibes: “I think that was our bus.”  

I check the schedule board and the next “rapido” to Florence comes in 3 hours – just 15 minutes before our train (with reserved seats) leaves Florence.  That’s not going to work.  But there is an “ordinario” bus to Florence coming in 40 minutes.  We can catch that, but will it get us there on time?  The “ordinario” is a local.  The “rapido” is an express that travels the freeway.  Steves’ Guidebook says “avoid the 2-hour ordinario buses unless you have time to enjoy the beautiful scenery en route.”

 

So we wait for the "ordinario," which fortunately arrives on time.  We grab two of the few remaining seats. No baggage compartment, so we pretty much have to carry our bags on our laps.  This is no strato-highway cruiser.  It’s hardly more than a city bus with nicely padded seats.  And the windows are all fogged up because of the rain – so much for beautiful scenery.  Two hours and a couple of minutes later we get to the Florence bus station – ten minutes before the train is supposed to leave.  I think the train station is across a very busy street.  It is, and so we slosh across the street pulling carryons and dodging puddles and Italian drivers 

STOP!  Wouldn’t it be neat to have a camera crew following you and recording all this; just like The Amazing Race?   

The schedule board in the station says the train leaves from Track 9.  “Look, we’re right next to Track 9.”  In a minute a huge silver and red bullet-shaped rail monster glides in, and we board.  Venice, here we come. 

 

This is the “ferroargenta” (silver rail?).  In 2 hours and ten minutes (right on schedule) it takes us to Venice, with 3-minute stops at Bologna and Padua.  The view isn’t great (mostly tunnels as far as  Bologna, and industrial areas after that), but it’s smooth, speedy, very comfortable, serves snacks, and provides free Italian newspapers.   And restrooms that are twice the size of those on planes.

You come into Venice on a 3 mile causeway (Via Liberta) that carries across the Laguna Veneta trains, cars, buses and the thousands of people who work in Venice but live in Mestre on the mainland.  The island on the horizon is Burano, a separate island but part of the city of Venice.   The train ends at Santa Lucia station right on the Grand Canal

First task is to buy vaporetto tickets  (Venice’s water busses) that will  take us to our pensione.  When you step out of the train station you walk into the watery world of Venice.  Wow!

The church across the Canal is San Simeone Piccolo, built in the early years of the 18^th century. It is one of the last churches built in Venice.  The yellow building to the right is the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

The Ritz Carlton has its own dock, as do many of the bigger hotels

 

Our vaporetto ride is short, just six stops until we disembark at Mercato Rialto, an outdoor produce and fish market that has operated continuously for 700 years.  Take that Portland!

 

Our B&B is a 2 or 3 minute walk from the vaporetto stop on a “street” (8 feet wide, at the most) called Calle Drio la Scimia.  This is where our Rick Steves tour group will stay. The tour starts at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon.
Our B&B is in a very old building.  But everything in Venice is in an old building.

Remember the rain in Siena?  Remember we waited for a bus for almost an hour?  This is the result.  All of Bonnie’s clothes are soaked.  Our room will look like this for 2 days.  My luggage gave a lot more protection; it was heavier and thicker, and only things on the bottom got wet, and none of them were clothes.

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The rain was coming down hard and it was dark by the time we were ready to eat. Our Guidebook showed a restaurant close by.  But the rain was so bad and the temperature so low that we walked into the first lighted place we saw.  They sat us right away, in a seat by a floor-to-ceiling window.  We looked out the window and saw this.

We were practically under the Rialto Bridge.  How can the biggest oldest bridge in town sneak up on you?  

The Rialto Bridge was completed in 1591.  It replaced a high maintenance wooden draw bridge built in the 12^th century.  It’s wide enough to support two lanes of kiosks/shops catering to tourists; so there are 3 lanes of foot traffic - one between the two lanes of shops, and two on the outer edges; and it’s covered.  It’s really a sight, and interesting to walk across.  After St Mark’s it’s probably the biggest tourist magnet in Venice.
The land on either side of it is also one of the lowest spots.  The other is Piazzo S. Marco   Both are the first places to flood after a big rain.  In fact “Rialto” is a contraction of “Rio” (river”) and “alto” (high), so it means “high water”. 

The bridge was great; the food wasn’t.  We spent 72 euros (about 97 bucks) for overcooked, previously frozen lasagna, spaghetti with a few mussels, a fish soup (that was OK) and house wine.  But it was “right on the canal” and the waiters wore white jackets.  I have forgotten the name of the place, but we were obviously paying for the view and location, and not the food.