Little by little, one travels far.: 1. Venice Italy

My travels through Italy was quite an adventure to say the least. The transport to a from Italy and around Italy is what made the trip interesting. My roommates and I have made a pact that each person gets to pick a specific destination around Europe and we have to ensure that we make it there. My trips was throughout Germany and we made that happen. Matt wanted to see Italy, more importantly Rome and the Vatican City, hence the reason for a trip to Italy. We left for Italy late Wednesday October 18^th where we traveled from Cork, Ireland to London Stansted in the UK. What made the trip so interesting was the fact that we had to sleep in the airport since our flight to Venice was not until the next morning. So we arrived and sat in the baggage claim area for a couple of hours until some old English women kicked us out at about midnight. We then went to the main departures lobby area where we set up camp next to the Swiss Air check in desk. Surprisingly there were an awful lot of people attempting to sleep in the Stansted airport. Which makes sense seeing as how Ryanair, “Europe’s discount airline” has a hub at this airport and everyone that flies Ryanair is to cheap to go and stay in a hotel much like myself and my roommates. So after a very interesting evening of no sleep, and lots of card playing we eventually boarded our plane to Treviso. Another fun fact about Ryanair is the reason that the airline is so cheap is because they almost never fly into the main airports. With that after we arrived in Treviso and took a bus to Venice. Unfortunately when we arrived in Venice it was pouring rain and as we quickly noticed Venice is not a city that is equipped for rain. You will see why in some picture below. After about 2 hours we finally found our hotel on the other side of the Venice Island. We took a quick nap since we were not in the best of moods and then hit the city for some food and some sightseeing. Our trip to Venice consisted of Matt, Ryan, and I. Then once in Rome we met up with Brittney, Caitlin, Victoria, and Sheldon.

Venice is a city that defies description, it truly should be seen, and wandered through to be believed. Venice is quite a tiny city and is one that travelers should meander through to truly understand its vibe. Venice is like a labyrinth of intertwined lanes and canals where we literally lost ourselves or got lost. Although Venice is most definitely a city that can be seen in a day seeing as how there are not that many sights to see. Rather Venice as a whole is a sight and to really see this small city all you have to do is walk around. So we spent our first day getting lost in the city attempting to find our hotel. After our nap the rain had stopped and like magic all of the flooded streets were dry and we wandered around the city some more getting lost while trying to see a couple of sights and find the best and cheapest slice of pizza. The next day we spent touring the five or six sight that are unique to Venice and then spent several hours out on the patio of a pizzeria eating pizza and playing cards until our night train left for Rome. Overall Venice is a very unique place where we had plenty of free time to relax and take in the Venetian atmosphere. As a side note Venice is considered a lagoon consisting of several little Islands. We spent most of our time on the main Venice Island but other important Islands include Lido Island, Burano and Murano. Within the city limits of Venice absolutely no cars are allowed. The only modes of transportation is by boat, water taxi, or gondola. While in Venice all of the modes of transportation were on strike so we were unable to ride on a boat through the grand canal.

Our train to Rome is worth noting. We used the Tren Italia to travel to Rome and Florence. The Tren Italia is the national train service. After getting our tickets we boarded our night train and took our seats. Each train car has about 5 or 6 cabins with six seats in each cabin and the three of us were dispersed about the train car in different cabins. I got lucky in that the people in my cabin were not that sketchy, but Ryan’s cabin consisted of six men who looked as though they had just gotten out of prison and smelled like they had not showered in weeks. I am positive that he did not sleep a wink. Although seven hours later we made it to Rome safe and sound although Ryan claims that he will never take another Tren Italia night train again.

Since it was raining and Venice is not well equipped for the rain we had to walk through a rather large puddle. This was the only street we could take to cross a canal to get where our hotel was.

After our nap luckily the rain had stopped and the sun was begining to come out. This is a view from the area where our hotel was located.

A Church next to our hotel.

A picture of me overlooking Lido Island. Lido Island is supposedly the spot where people go to hang out by the beach but seeing as how its was raining and cold we were not able to bust out our bathing suits.

Just another bridge and another canal

This is typical sight in Venice. A very small canal with houses and boats. At this point I am pretty sure we were lost trying to find St. Marks Square.

The Grand Canal - We wanted to ride on one of the water taxis down the grand canal but the Venice transportation system was on strike so we were not able to.

Piazza San Marco. This is the most iconic Piazza in Venice. It the location in the movies where people feed the penguins and/or run through them. Although the day we were there the penguins must have been hiding from the rain.