Getting to (and Surviving in) Venice

We ended up waiting ALL DAY to catch the bus out of Tavarnelle...which made us miss our train from Florence to Venice--by one minute. It turned out to be one of the most expensive minutes of our lives. Take Elder Wirthin's advice and find the humor in the situation when you shell out 80 Euros, aka $120, for another ticket (on top of the price of the non-refundable missed train). Needless to say, by this time we were all smiles. :)

We got to Venice short on cash and short on time. The two don't mix. How do you take a 20 Euro taxi and feel good about it? Of course, Lu saw the wisdom in biting the bullet and taking the taxi (we did only have mere minutes before our hotel closed for the night). The driver was nice and gave us a good price. The hotel manager was even nicer. We checked in and asked her where we could buy some milk (this was funny to watch because she spoke NO ENGLISH). After some hand signing and very basic Italian, she ended up taking us downstairs and heated up some milk for us like we were a couple of lost kittens. Everyone should try bran cereal and warm frothy milk during their lifetime.

Venice was an adventure. We saw a lot of the touristy places. There were hundreds of shops with masks, glass, and yummy candy. Busy city centers and packed restaurants. There were a couple of cruise liners in the city that day so it was plenty busy. We also took the chance to leave the main path and explore the back streets/canals.

The back streets were my favorite. Beautiful stone paths and buildings, an about-to-be-married-couple riding on a gondola, and some quite time in a church on Sunday made for a lovely day.

Aw, the pretty couple

No swimming here Lu! (But I guess if you've stuck your foot in the Nile you can stick your foot in anything)