Bridges and Canals: Finding our way to our hotel at night in Venice

As we took the boat to Venice from the airport, I checked Google. Sunset a little after 8pm.   The sun would set over Venice just as began our entry into the Grand Canal for the first time.  Not a bad way to start!

We had disembarked at the beautiful Rialto bridge and immediately the sights and smells of Italy welcomed and enticed us. There were our beloved Cannoli here in the land of their origin! Pasta and wine were everywhere.  The lights lit up riverside restaurants specializing in pasta and seafood. We were needless to say delighted.  I wondered if we would return here to be one of the lucky patrons relaxing and enjoying the scenery. In fact we would. This would be one of our favorite haunts like so many before us.

OMG! CANNOLI!

Murano Glass?  It's a big deal here. Made on one of the islands.

We began to make our way through the maze of this new found wonderland. Carefully consulting paper and Google maps guessing our way through the unknown and greeted at ever turn by sites and sounds that would make their way into our hearts forever.   As unbeknownst to us, we neared our hotel and wandered past some of the best Gelato on the planet for the first time.

Mmmmmm Gelato. I will be back for you!

We wound our way past piazzo, over bridge and canal, walking between buildings down alleys we never would have ventured into at home.  Finally, Google Maps said we were near, but where was our next turn? We kept walking past it.  Finally realized this seeming crack between two buildings was an alley. no more than a few feet wide it was dark and intimidating. "You first!" my daughter says. :)


We walked an uncomfortable distance down this alley toward what seemed a dead end with no idea what we were getting into.  Then we ran into these words painted on the wall by some graffiti artist with a sense of humor (we hoped) who knew exactly what we were thinking.  The words we read at the end of this dark alley were backed by a blood like spray paint and put to words the thought at the back of our minds...."GAME OVER"

...and that's where you turn left trekking even further into an even darker alley and then right again down a still darker alley when you witness in almost disbelief...

The street entrance to our hotel

We rang the buzzer under this sign and were greeted by a very nice gentleman who remarked that he was very impressed we found this entrance not many do their first time. He knew exactly who we were. There weren't that many rooms and apparently we were the last ones to arrive that day. 

Now if I had been smart enough to spring for a water taxi, this would have been our entrance.

But where's the fun in that? Okay, while it was a fun adventure, I do wish we had arrived at the front door at least once during our stay. What a cool way to make an entrance.

So our little brush with terror had ended. We dropped our bags and freshened up because we were both starving and it was time for our first meal in Italy.  We didn't have to endure my usual Yelp consultation as we both knew where we wanted to go. We skipped the hotel recommendation and made our way back to the bridge. Oddly the trek back was not nearly so scary and in no time we found ourselves enjoying the sites and sounds of the Rialto bridge this time as patrons.  We strolled up and down restaurant row on our side of the bridge but decided on the first one that we had passed.  As it happened, that was the best one of the bunch.  Have a look and see if you don't agree.

Gnocchi for the Lady and Frutti de Mare for me.  And let me just say for the first but not the last time that Italians know how to do desert!

Well fed, delighted, and tired we made our way back down what had now become the streets of our Venezian home to bed.

Tips for Travel in Italy

Phone and Internet - We opted to use WiTourist.com for our primary source of data.  WiTourist has plans at multiple levels and with 2 or more phones becomes more affordable compared to just getting a SIM card and data for each phone. The beauty of their business model is that you know it works and they drop it off at your hotel before you arrive. On the last day of your stay you just leave it at the front desk of your hotel. The battery on the device is decent and lasted anywhere from 6-10 hours depending on how far we were from cell phone towers. I highly recommend keeping a back up battery for your phones and this Wifi Hotspot.  We also purchased a Global data plan as a back up which was important because we found we used our phones extensively as maps, trip guides, sources of historical info, event schedulers, and ticket purchasers. We could not have done our own tour as effectively without our phones.

Venice has hot spots across the city you can pay a single price to access.

Larger High Speed Rail trains offer free wifi service.

Rome is said to have many wifi hotspots.

NOTE: Some advise that you need an Italian phone to receive a text code in order to receive free wifi.  We weren't able to validate that.

Google translate saved our butts on Italian only sites more than once. Let it translate. It usually does a good job.

SIM Cards are described by many travelers as the way to go.  I have to agree we didn't take or make any calls to/from home. We also did need to make a few calls locally and direct dialing would have been nice. This is an Italian SIM wiki that tells you about the networks and their deals.

http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Italy

Trains:

I used these two sites exclusively. The first site was initially easier to use and I booked most of my advance tickets from home before I left.  However, the second is the Italian site and as a result seemed to have more options in terms of available seating. More than once Italiarail said there were no seats but I found them in the Italian site. I gravitated to trenitalia more once I was in Italy and familiar with the train schedules.   Both are trustworthy.

https://www.italiarail.com/

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

(note: it's not necessarily easy to find the English version of Trenitalia. You may want to copy this link)

Train Tip: Leave yourself more extra time than you think you need!
In one case our train was not assigned a platform number on the schedule display right up to 5 minutes before departure!  Depending on travel time, there may not be anyone there to help you, let alone someone who speaks your language. Also, I observed that while some train staff were very helpful, many tried to pretend they didn't see me and were not especially motivated to help even though I was desperately polite.

Ticket Prices: Very reasonable for the high speed rail.  Incredibly cheap for the city to city trains though they are not quite as nice. I paid a little of 4 Euro for 2 adult tickets to go from Pompeii to Salerno.  Venice to Rome will be more like 50-100 depending on what kind of ticket you are going for and the timing of departure. You can save money by picking a slightly less popular time and still not have to leave at a difficult time.

Train tip:  Do not miss your train, but if you do you may be able to get onto another train without additional expense. I had an incident where we used up all our spare time unable to find our train and in the 2 minutes before it departed, I managed to book tickets on a slightly later train at no charge.

Train Tip: The automated ticket machines are confusing as hell but faster than waiting in the customer service line.  If you have a travel partner, I suggest one of you wait in line while the other tries to figure out a machine. TAKE A NUMBER.  I missed that. They will not take mercy on you without a number. and again, not everyone speaks English.  Be patient and when necessary insist on help.  Some people know what you need, but maybe because of a million disrespectful tourists before you, really don't want to help you.

Train Tip:  Make sure your seats are together if it matters to you.  Some trains we were on weren't too busy. However, on popular tracks it was crowded and people insisted on taking their assigned seats separating myself and my daughter.

Train Tip: Beware busy times and book ahead, but not too far ahead.  Before we left I booked our train travel between major cities.  When I arrived I found I wished I had waited.  Trains from major cities like Rome and Venice were actually pretty easy to get a day or two before.  I wasted 2 sets of prepaid tickets because our flight was delayed and in the second instance because we wanted to stay in Venice longer.  If I had it to do over, I would schedule those just before I wanted to leave or even buy at the train station provided it wasn't a weekend or a holiday.  HOWEVER, do not screw around with smaller cities especially on the weekend or high travel periods like holidays.  I waited to book a train from Salerno to Rome until the day before and was basically stranded. I had to rent a car for much more than the cost of a ticket.  It was an adventure, but you do not need the stress of worrying about whether you can get to your destination. 2 or 3 days in advance should work, but if you want to be safe book them all from home a month in advance and just deal with the schedule lock in.

Our unforgettable arrival in Venice, Italy

Venice is every bit as beautiful as we imagined!

There was this wonderful moment for us after we had grabbed our luggage, taken a boat, and finally began to make your way into this legendary city, when we "felt it".  We realized we were truly in Italy and the land of our imaginings.  The site of the Gondolas and buildings partially  immersed in water, the sounds of an old and beautiful language not your own, the sounds of boats and water providing background to a singing Gondolier, the smells of water and water living all enveloped us and became our reality.  I said to my daughter, "How does it feel to really be here? We have arrived in Italy!" and she turned back with a wide grin that echoed the joy in my own heart.  Indeed we had arrived in Italy and lovely Venice.

I remember examining a map of Venice as we approached.  The boat had specific stops along the Grand Canale and I was looking for the one that would land us closes to our hotel.  I had no idea how fortunate I was that I picked the beautiful and ancient Rialto Bridge as our best point to disembark. This romantic location was the perfect introduction to our time in Venice and served as a daily focal point and friend that shaped our time there.