Our Trip to Venice

Nat and I took the train on Thursday morning to Venice, we tried to catch the 11:15 train which was only 22 euro. However it was sold out, so we bought tickets for the 11:05 train which wasn't sold out. for 44 euro... However when we went to get on the train it was so full people were standing shoulder to shoulder. Which makes me frightened to think what the 11:15 sold out train must have looked like. Anyway in the end we took the 12:15 train.

We arrived in Venice at around 3:15ish and found that our hotel was a very short walk from the train station. So we didn't need to pay for a water-bus. We checked into our hotel, and then decided to go walking looking for St. Marco square.

Venice is a very maze like city, when you're walking around it feels a bit like playing the original Wolfenstein 3D game. However we were never attacked by the Nazi soldiers, which is good because I didn't find a single health pack along the way. Half way there, we stumbled across a church which had replicas of some of Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions. We had a whirlwind tour of them because they were closing. After making it to St. Marco's square we wandered around and enjoyed ourselves before taking a water-bus back to our hotel. We decided not to buy tickets for the water-bus and just sneak on. This has worked since we got here in Milan for the regular bus. We haven't paid once since arriving.

The next day we ate some food before heading out again toward the Rialto Bridge. We decided to take the Water-Bus, again without paying. Anyway as we were hoping off we noticed that people were having their tickets checked and hooray! We were asked. Right there on the spot Nat and I broke into a improv routine of, No you have the ticket in your pocket... Not I'm sure you do, etc etc etc. After a few minutes and being told that we would have to pay a 70 euro fine. Our routine worked and we were told that if we just bought another pair of tickets we could go. It was a skit worthy of who's line is it anyway, if only Colin Mochrie and Ryan Styles were there, they would be proud. If you're ever in Venice I suggest you buy the tickets unless you're as convincing an actor.

The Rialto Bridge is the largest bridge that crosses the Grand Canal, it's so wide that there are shops the whole way down the middle of the bridge. We checked out some of the shops and wondered around until we found the thickest slices of pizza I've ever seen... So we ate some!

That evening we ate at a small mom and pop restaurant filled with Italians celebrating Saint Ambroggio Day. It was much better than the tourist restaurant we had eaten at the day before.

It rained like crazy over night and when we woke up in the morning the water level was significantly higher than it had been the day before. We took the water-bus to St. Marco's square (ticket's in hand) and had fun laughing at the people wearing ridiculous boot shaped plastic bags. But as we approached Saint Marco Square we noticed why. There was water covering almost the whole square which was almost 2 feet deep at some parts. The water made it impossible to access St. Mark's church which was one of the reasons why we had come. We remembered that we had seen Rubber boots for sale on the Rialto Bridge so we decided to make our way in that direction, We had to take several detours because of flooded areas. But we finally found the store and each got a pair of Rubber Wellies we paid 15 euro each which was perhaps expensive however the fake plastic bag boots were 11 euro... From this point on we could walk where ever we pleased, and we were able to access the church.

After that we rushed back to make our train back to Milan, we managed to get the 22 euro train instead of the 44 euro train.