Europe 2nd Trip - Venice, Italy (Day 10)

3rd Nov 2013, Sunday, Rainy

High Tide

Today, i had planned a free day in Venice before we take our train down to Tirano. But because of the customs stamp for the tax refund, we wanted to head down to the train station first to see whether we can change to the earlier train to go Milan first (can't change reservations online too). So we woke up and got ourselves prepared and had breakfast. Then we went and do the check-out and asked for a water taxi (the ride back to the train station costs euro $70... @_@). There was heavy rain in the morning too and there was high tide at the Grand Canal. The water was already up to the pavement, and the ground wet everywhere. We had to go to another corner to wait for the water taxi, which was guided by the hotel staff who also pushed our luggage there. At the waiting place, i saw a tower, which was actually leaning (like the Leaning Tower of Pisa). The water taxi came after like 10 mins later, then the hotel staff helped us to take our luggage up to the taxi and i gave a small tip to the hotel staff to thank him and bid him good bye. Again, we had a good ride on the water taxi, we even had to bend ourselves down when going under the bridges (as the bridges were too low)...hohohoho....But after some time, we found ourselves got into a unfamiliar area, and it looked like the port of Venice, which worried us. So i went up to the taxi driver to tell him again that we wanted to go to the train station. And i think he said ya, ok. Then later he let us off at a stop different from the place we took the water taxi yesterday, which was not in front of the train station. So i went up again and asked him, he explained by saying due to high tide, he cannot drive in, so had to let us off here. He told us to just walk in the road and the train station will be there. So i got no choice and we got off (cos the driver had already stopped his boat), and he got our luggage off his boat. Then we tried to follow the road and walked in, luckily there was signs indication to the trains. But after walking a distance, i realised my shoulders doesn't have any weight sitting on them, i wasn't carrying my backpack!! i turned and asked my friend where's my backpack...and then i just ran off back to the place where the taxi had stopped. He had just started to leave, so i shouted to get his attention. Luckily, he still heard my shout, despite he was still on the phone and he threw mi my backpack....

A Nice Building saw @ Accademia Area

After i got back my backpack, i ran back to the train station and went off to the train reservation office. There was a queue and we were trying to get on the next train which was like leaving in less than 5 mins. When i got my turn, i was told that all the trains for the day was fully booked, there's no way we can change our reservation. So after discussion, we decided to forget about the tax refund, and continued our walk in Venice (anyway, it was really a risk going to that station to get custom stamps, cos by the time we could get there, there was no train back to Tirano). So we went to deposit our luggage at the train station and went to take the water bus to Accademia stop to find gelato. Along the way, we bought some postcards and souvenirs from a stall on the road (i told the owner with the stamps too). But again, we were unable to find the recommended gelato shop there and didn't manage to take gondola ride too (as it was raining). So we just walked around and enjoyed the views. The rain was also weird, it can be raining heavily in 5 mins, and it will stop after that. Then, we just went in to a restaurant there to have our lunch. The restaurant name is Terrazza del Casin dei Nobili. We ordered a clams & mussels bowl and my friends ordered seafood risotto (i didn't order any main course as i was not hungry and just now had a shock. Wondered was it that i used up all my luck to help block my friend' bad luck, and so now i not having good luck myself......hahahaaa).

Clams & Mussels Bowl

The clams & mussels bowl was not bad, and even the risotto was full of seafood, you can taste the seafood in every mouth. I tried one mouth, it wasn't salty and it tasted yummy. My 2 friends were enjoying the risotto and after the good lunch, we paid and made our way back to the train station. Then i realised the stall owner where we bought the postcards didn't include the stamps in...arghhh.....we went to look for stamps once we reached the train station, but no luck. Luckily, there was a shop in the train station that sells stamps, so my friend got her stamps and we went off to take our train to Milan. It was a 2 hours train journey, and we had to take another regional train to get to Tirano. And it was kind of scary, as it will be the last train out from Milan. If we didn't get on this last train, we will be struck in Milan for the night. So my friend decided to try get the train tickets for that regional train first, luckily we still managed to get the tickets. Because the stupid train was late, by the time we reached Milan, it was like less than 5 mins for our connecting train to leave. We had to make a mad rush to the platform to get on that train. I went off running to try see the board for the platform number, with no luck. So i went to ask the staff at another platform, and got to know where is it. Apparently, my friends already knew and got on the train and so i went up. I tried to move coach by coach to meet up with my friends....so tiring to carry and push my luggage along the super small walkway in the train...cos other people were also having their luggage near to their seats (One of the passengers still had to help me carry my luggage over, cos their was blocking the way and there's no way to move them). At 1 point, i had to stop cos there was a family with 2 young kids standing at one of the door and they didn't have the intention of letting mi pass across to the door of the next coach. They were just talking and letting the 2 kids jumping around, i just sat down and rested first. Anyway we had data, so i just texted my friends that i took a break first, continued to move in later. After that family got off, i tried to move in again, then i just stopped and sit near the train door. I started to sweat, and my arms were really tired from the pushing. At least there was wind coming in near the door.

After a lot of stops (don't know how many), the train seems to be more free up, and there were lesser people on the train. I tried to move again, finally i caught up to the coach where my friends were seated at. But there was still no empty seats, so i sat at the previous coach. Later then i moved up to sit beside my friends in the same coach. And later it turned out the train was delayed too, so we reached Tirano later than expected. But i'm just glad we reached Tirano and we found the hotel. The name was Hotel Bernina, it was the most recommended hotel which was located near the Tirano Train Station (Italy) and Tirano Train Station (Swiss). We had to go in from the hotel restaurant to get to the hotel lobby. There was a cupboard beside, where all the room keys are placed...kind of interesting....Then the hotel staff gave us our room key...and we took turns to go up to the room. You can see the outside street when taking the lift, too bad it was facing a construction site. And when we opened our room door, hahaha....the room was so small, not to what we expected. There was 2 single beds placed side by side and a bunk bed opposite the 2 single beds. And there was only 1 window, so we opened to let some wind blow in to cool the room. So it was decided i sleep the bunk bed, as i was the lightest. Me and one of my friends went downstairs to buy a bottle of mineral water...thirsty thirsty.....hahaa...did i mentioned, one of my friends was putting yoko yoko every night before she went to bed....luckily i was almost asleep by the time she was putting it....and i was sharing beds with her for the whole trip. Oh well, this is how i passed my day today...up and down....and exercised too much...hahaa...

I will definitely come back to visit Venice again, if i get a second chance (need to save $ first). It is worth the visit and there are still many places i didn't get to see this time and i will make sure i eat the gelato here and take a ride on the gondola boat.

Hotel Stayed:
Hotel Bernina, Tirano

Europe 2nd Trip - Venice, Italy (Day 9)

2nd Nov 2013, Saturday, Cloudy

Florence Train Station

Today, we are going to Venice and we had reserved our train at 9 am plus. So we got up early again and prepared ourselves, packed our luggage too. Then i went to check on the fallen plank, and tried to put it back to the door frame (hope it doesn't fall again...hohohoo). After that, we went for our breakfast. The same breakfast was the same as yesterday, we didn't have much. After the breakfast, we went back to our room to collect our luggage and we had to carry our heavy luggage down the staircase...hahaha....Then we went and do our check out, and asked the hotel owner to call a cab for us. Then my friends went down first while i settled the hotel taxes and so, we made our way down to the main train station. It was still early when we reached the train station, luckily we had already made our train reservation, so we were just sitting around to wait for the board to show us the platform number of our train. I just ended up napping again...hahahaa....Finally, we boarded our train and i just slept almost all the way to Venice (sooooooo tired and sleepy....), and the journey was 2 hours long.

Our Hotel Room

Finally, we reached Venice. From inside of the train station, it looked normal. But once we stepped out the train station, the grand canal was just in front and it was crowded with people. And across the canal, was another street and in front of the train station, you can see water taxi stand and the water buses stops. I originally planned to take a water bus to the hotel. But when we saw the crowd at the water buses stops, it was like madness. It was soo crowded with people, that's like no way we can squeeze up the buses with our luggage. So we went for water taxi, and it required euro $60 to reach the hotel. Anyway we went ahead, which was way better. We were the only 3 people on board and we can stand at the back and enjoy the view without being squeezed. It was a nice ride, i enjoyed it and Venice was so beautiful with the buildings on both sides of the canal and is amazing the only transportation for them are boats..... We spent about 20 mins on the boat ride and we reached the port near our hotel. There was a short distance we need to walk from the port to the hotel and there was a lot of people at that area to (It was St. Mark Square area some more). So we dragged our luggage to the hotel (the hotel name was Villa Igea) first, after we did our check-in, the hotel staff brought us to the other hotel which was on another street behind, named Casa Nicolo Priuli Hotel. Apparently, there was 2 more hotels behind the main hotel and we were brought to the one further down. There was a staircase again that we need to carry our luggage up to our room...hahaaa....The room was so artistic, there was a large painting hanging on the wall of the room. It was having a single bed at a corner and a double bed on the other end. And the room was warm enough for me....whhahaa.....There was even a bath tub in the toilet.

St. Mark Square (Campanile)

After settling down in the room, we made our way out for lunch and our adventures in Venice. The streets of Venice can get confusing too..There were so many alleys around, not easy to remember where did you turn or whether you walked before. We walked towards St Mark's Square, there were a lot of shops around, there was masks shops, selling those party masks ( those types that you see in the movies), and many others. We also saw a shop selling cute cute sweets (called Marzipan), they were made to be like mushrooms, fruits, seashells and choclates, etc.We went to the lunch place to have our lunch first, the restaurant is called Trattoria Alla Basilica). They were having a set menu which was selling at euro $14, which was quite worth it. It was having an appetiser, 1st dish and a 2nd dish. As usual, i can't finish the 2 dishes again. :P...After the lunch, we walked back to visit St. Mark's Square. There was a lot of people at the square, can't even see properly on the buildings, and the buildings were under maintenance too (got barriers around them). So we went to take the water bus back down to the train station to start Rick Steve's The Grand Canal Tour (Starting point is from the train station and the end point will be at the St. Mark's Square stop). There were people everywhere...and pigeons, seagulls too. You can see gondola stops near the port too. I went to queue to buy the bus tickets and the tickets were not cheap there (euro $18 for a 12 hours ticket). And 1 thing good of getting bus tickets here in Venice, you don't have to look for tobacco shops to buy, the bus ticket counters are just in front of the water bus stops. Anyway we got the 24 hours tickets and while i was queuing to buy, there was an aunty who kept coughing behind me (so bad cough, like coughed until her lungs were coming out and she was still talking to her son/friend).

Santa Maria della Salute

Anyway, we got on the water bus after we got out tickets, it was easy to understand the water buses direction. You just need to go to the correct water platform with the bus number that you want to take, and see whether it is going to the correct direction that you want to go. There is a board too to display the timings of the buses. So we took bus no.1 back to the train station, which took like about almost an hour. There were a lot of amazing buildings to see, like the House of Gold, their casino, etc. But it was full of people, and the back of the boat which was outdoor, was too small to accommodate the people. We managed to get seats at the back still, as we took the final stop and took the same boat back again. And the boat was slowly moving and stopping at every stop. By the time we went back down to the last stop (Lido), the sun had already setting and it was turning dark. The boat staff got us down too, as they were changing the boat, so we can't take the same boat back to our hotel. So we got off and saw a supermarket (called coop) and since we still need to wait for the next boat, we went inside to shop around. In there, i saw a cute packaging of Nutella (and i don't see it in Singapore), so i decided to get some back. When my friend saw mi taking the nutella, she was asking why would people buy nutella in Venice when Singapore was already selling them? hohohoo....i just said is because the package is cute meh....kekekee... Then i left them and went to look for tea and when i came back to meet them, i saw them each taking 3 bottles of the same nutella i took..hahahaa....they 2 so cute...

My new Shoes!!

After the happy shopping in the supermarket, we went out to take a short walk around the area. There was a modern bridge in front of the water bus stop. It looked new and was definitely not like the other bridges which were with long history (Google Check: It was the 4th bridge over the Grand Canal, called Ponte di Calatrava). After that, we went back to take the water bus back, we alighted at Rialto stop. There, you can see the Rialto Bridge, and it was so packed with people (Why we didn't went and cross the bridge? hohoho....). Anyway, our main aim was to find a gelato shop (named Grom) there but we were unable to find it. We just walked at the streets, really, there were a lot of shops and people. We even went into a Bata shop as one of my friends had her shoes "opened mouth", so she needs to get a new shoes for the rest of the trip. Anyway, i went along to see see too, and saw the Adidas shoes, which were selling half prices and it was Adidas Neo series. So i went and picked 1 for myself...hehehee.....By the time we done with the shopping, it was already 7 pm plus. And so, we made our way back to our hotel. After we reached our hotel, we put our goodies in our room and then went downstairs again to buy water. It was so dark outside and there wasn't much light around. Luckily, there were 2 restaurants which were opposite our hotel still open, as i was getting hungry, i wanted to grab some food to eat (but at the same time, i was very sleepy...hahahaa).

Giant Turbot Fish

We saw a giant fish showing outside of 1 of the restaurants (named Ristorante alla Conchiglia), the waiter was telling us that the fish weighed 1.3kg and it was very good. So we decided to try on that fish for dinner...and we got a mushroom soup too. There was another table behind us, who were making a lot of noise, luckily they went off after some time. We waited quite a long time for the fish, really, can wait until sleep (I never felt that i can actually wait for my food until i almost dozed off on the table...hahahaa). Finally, it came and we finished eating the giant fish (i actually quite like the fish) and the fish itself cost us $82.80, so in total this dinner was the most expensive we had so far. Then we went back to our hotel to zzzz.....Another long day tomorrow....

Hotel Stayed:
Villa Igea

Places Visited:
St Mark's Square
Lido Area
Grand Canal Cruise