Venice: Probably my least favorite city in the world

Yeah, you heard me right. Least favorite.

Well, let's continue from where we left off.

Begamo: The next morning the strike was over, and we bought our tickets to Venice. I had been smart enough to look up train times and prices before I left Alicante for each of our train trips around Italy so I was able to find the cheapest train tickets possible. It took a little browsing and exploring of TrenItalia.com but it was so worth it. We really saved a ton of money this way. Sure it might have meant having to switch trains a couple of times, sure the trains might be packed and smelly, and sometimes you might have to stand for an hour before a seat became available, but in the end, money was tight so you've gotta do what you've gotta do. The tickets we bought were literally, less than half the cost of the average ticket, the ticket a normal person would buy at the counter. But if you just tell the person at the counter that you want the least expensive ticket, that seemed to do the trick. I rarely had to tell them the exact time I was looking for.

So we took the train to Venice (maybe a four hour ride) and arrived at the Santa Lucia station in the early afternoon. Since Venice is just a big island with a bunch of canals, the only way to get around is by water bus. And that sucker is EXPENSIVE! Every ride costs 6 euros! To cut costs we booked a room at a hotel on the nearby island of Lido. Mistake. The room might have been cheaper but then we had to take the stupid water bus to and from Venice every day. So we decided to buy a three day pass which didn't save much money, but it gave us more freedom so we could make as many trips to and from Venice as we wanted so we could take midday naps. And we had to do a lot less walking which was nice.

So anyway, we arrived in Lido and found our hotel and found more trouble. Even though we had warned the hotel ahead of time that we couldn't make it the first night because of the train strike, they still charged us for the first nights stay. And I guess I understand that but when we asked to speak to the manager, the man at the desk kept making excuses. He just told us that that was the way it was, but we said we still wanted to speak to the manager. He said that was their policy, but we said we still wanted to speak to the manager. He said they already charged it and couldn't credit it back, that would be too hard and take to long. We said give us cash, he said he couldn't and we said we still wanted to speak to the manager. He said the manager wasn't in, so we asked when he would be in. He told us that the manager would be in later tomorrow. So every time we came back to the hotel, we asked for the manager and he was never there. We just wanted to make a deal, maybe just get half of our money back. But we never ever saw the manager. So don't go to the Hotel Reiter in Venice.

After we dropped our stuff off, we decided to remain on Lido for the rest of the day. So we walked all around the little island and parts of it reminded me of my neighborhood in Arlington Hts. We walked down the main road to the beach and then around some really pretty neighborhoods with very pretty villas and canals. There were little shops on some streets and we got our daily gelato and some dinner.

Unfortunately we were in Italy during a heat wave. It was terrible. And my deodorant was terrible. Gross. So we went to bed early our first night after finding watching an episode of Italian subtitled Jersey shore on tv.

We suffered through that first night. The temperature dropped only a few degrees so we were both sweating the entire night. Neither of us got much rest.

We woke fairly early the next morning and took the water bus into Venice. With only Sohae's guidebook as our very rudimentary map, we ventured into the city. We stopped at a cafe for breakfast and sat down at a table outside. We each ordered a coffee and found out that the price of a drink at a table is literally twice the price of a drink ordered at the bar. So we got 4 euro cups of coffee. Great. Good to know.

From there we wandered around, I don't really remember where we went but we headed to the Piazza San Marco, the main area in town. There were so many tourists and we didn't have a good map so we didn't stay there long. It just wasn't exciting. I don't understand the hype. All the nearby shops were so expensive and it was stupid. And it was still so hot. SO we found a toursit office and asked for a map and they said they weren't free. Well, that was the first city I'd found that didn't have free maps. So stupid. I was very frusterated. Then we found a park and sat there and then we walked around some more. I think that was the day we wandered further into the city to find a pizzeria from her guidebook. Well we found it and it was good. And we discovered that Venice was much more tolerable in the evening when the sun set and the weather was bearable. We headed back to the water bus and made our way back to Lido. I think this was the day I decided I wanted tiramisu. I had seen it in a fridge in front of a restaurant so we stopped there and sat down and I told the waiter that I wanted tiramisu. And he said they don't just sell desserts. Excuse me? He said I had to order dinner. I told him I had already eaten dinner and just wanted some dessert and he said they didn't do that. What do you mean they don't do that?? I want to pay you for food, and you're not letting me. What sense does that make?? So we left and got our daily gelato.

The next day we headed to the lesser known parts of town. We hit up a fresh produce market and bought some huge grapes and ate them on a dock over a canal. That was nice :) Then we walked to the world's first Jewish ghetto. It was the Jewish neighborhood. And it still is. It was pretty and quiet and very nice. Then we headed back to Lido for a siesta and when it was cooler we took the water bus back to the main island but stayed in a quieter neighborhood where we found an internet cafe and grabbed a quick pasta dinner. And then we probably got gelato again.

So yeah, I didn't like Venice. I would not go back there again. But having Sohae there made it tolerable. This is how good friendships are formed.