Our entrance into Venice was less than encouraging. The sky was grey, and we knew that Venice's Mestre station was not in "Venice" per se. There were no canals - strike that, there were no canals with gondolas - they were all man-made, and due to the rain.
Fabio, our host in Venice, met us at the station and quickly drove us to our Mestre apartment. We had considered heading into town that evening, but the late hour and the rain convinced us that it was more appropriate to get some laundry done and try for some rest. Once our chores were washed and hung to dry, we settled in quickly for our first night in Venice.
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| The kitchen area of our apartment stay - this would soon be filled with hanging clothes. |
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| The Murphy Bed where we stayed in Venice. |
The hours turned, but the sun neglected to rise. We soldiered on, however, and after waking, checking to see if our newly-washed clothes were dry (they most certainly were not), we packed up our daily belongings and walked the kilometer to the train station. Once there, we used the very last day of our EuRail pass to take the train into Venice's Santa Lucia station.
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| Here is the Venetian "Lagoon" seen from our train from Mestre to Santa Lucia. |
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| The main square outside the Santa Lucia train station. |
Venice was thronged with tourists, umbrellas, canals, alleys, and rain. Lots and lots of rain. We headed out from the station in search of some of the traditional Venice-type activities, but found that the gondolas were shut down because of the rain. We did see some wonderful examples of churches, and lots of tourist-type shops that held examples of religious souveniers, as well as those dedicated to carnival - the celebration much-like Halloween that takes place here in February.
We also saw plenty of water - in both canal and rain form:
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| One of the many Venetian canals we crossed as we walked around the city. |
These were often bridged by - you guessed it - bridges:
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| James and Erin huddle for warmth on one of the Venetian bridges. |
While brief, we enjoyed our time in Venice. It would have been wonderful to wander around in nice weather, but this trip is about whatever experiences are thrown in front of us on a given day. While it was wet, we were well-equiped, and were able to make it back to Venice-Mestre after a pasta lunch and a good-day's walk relatively warm. There, near the Mestre town center, we found a little cafe where Erin ordered some hot chocolate, James a pastry, and we used the included access to internet for an hour before heading back to the apartment.
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| The gondolas were on "rain-strike" today. |
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| The tourist stalls were still in full swing, displaying "Carnivale" masks for sale. |
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| Tabitha still had the chance to take in some of Venice's canals. |
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| More locks on the bridges - here in Venice. |
Our laundered clothes were still not dry on our return to the apartment, and Erin ended using her blow-dryer to help them along. We patiently waited for the sun to set and prepared for our next day of travel - to Florence.
