Slept in this morning after our rough night of bugs which was nice :) Mom called and they checked out of their hotel and were bringing their luggage over to my apartment. I finished getting ready and we wrote out our postcards to the fam, then we headed out for some food.
None of us had ate breakfast, but it was already about time for lunch. We decided to go to Peppy's Bar which is just down the hill from my place. Mom and I got cappuccino's and Gerry got "American" coffee. Yes, that is what they call it. Mom got a frittata panini for lunch, Ger got a tuna panini, and I got a caprese salad. After our coffee we decided to share a bottle of white wine to go with our lunch. We sat for awhile and took our time and eventually decided to head out.
We dropped our postcards in the mail on the way back and also stopped at a bank to get money out. After that we returned to my apartment where I looked up the weather, which was supposed to be beautiful :) and packed up. Mom changed out some of her and Ger's stuff too and then we headed to Termini the train/bus station.
I don't know what I was thinking, I figured getting a ticket would be easy because it was a Thursday, but I should have learned from the experience and stress I went through with Becky that it's never that simple.
We got to Termini and went over to the self service station. My parents and I had planned to ride first class because it was a four hour train ride and we wanted to be comfortable, plus I figured they wouldn't want to be facing other random strangers. I looked up the trip and found one that left within the hour, but it said the first class was full and there were only two seats left in the second one. I began to feel sudden stress because the next train did not leave for a couple hours and was also filling up.
This is where the third incident began, we will label this: "The Criminal". As I was paging through trying to figure out what to do and what tickets we should buy a guy came over and started talking to me and tapping the screen. He was explaining to us that the second class was just as good as the first class and the only difference was in first class you got a beverage. I got all weirded out by him because he took over the screen and I started to step away. I told my parents we should just go talk to the main ticket counter and see if they have any solutions for us.
My mom and I left before Gerry and went in line. When Gerry came over he said he had watched the guy who was "helping us" / making things more difficult and rushed/pressured had been arrested by the Italian police! I figured he was trying to scam us, but he wouldn't back off. I'm glad we left when we did and I'm glad he got taken away, I'm sure if we had tried to push him away and buy our tickets he would have grabbed them and ran or taken our credit card as soon as we took it out. What a crazy mess!
It was a relief once we talked to the ticket counter to find there were 3 seats on the next train out to Venice, that they were in second class, but that we would at least be on the next train. We all calmed down a bit after we received our tickets. We purchased some waters for the ride, went to the bathroom, then boarded the train.
I was even more relieved when I realized we were on a really nice train to Venice compared to the train I road to Cinque Terre and Naples-Venice, that I thought we would be on. We got lucky because the train had two seats on each side and were not facing other seats so Mom and Ger sat together and I sat to a nice old man. It was a peaceful ride, there was even a food cart in there where we were able to get a snack along the way. I'm glad it all worked out :)
On the train ride I read up on Tuscany and Venice, listened to my Ipod, watched as the landscape went by (it was very beautiful because we went through the Tuscany area) and slept a little. There weren't many stops which was nice because it made the train ride go a little faster. Once we got to Venice it was dark out. I had printed out directions to our hotel so I knew exactly what taxi boat to take and where to get off to find out hotel :) I felt like a pro since I had already been there twice before!
We took the taxi boat to the hotel and it seemed to take forever! I think it was because I was super excited to be back and it was night time so it was hard to take pictures in the dark. Once we got off the boat our hotel was only a block away. It was down a scary alleyway so I was worried that the hotel wouldn't be that nice. Luckily, it was actually a really cute hotel. I laughed as we walked in the room though because it was literally 3 single beds, two pushed side by side, and one laying horizontal at the foot of the other two. We were sardined in. HAHA! Getting cozy in Venice! There was barely enough room to walk around the beds, the wardrobe would barely even open because the third bed was in the way and the TV didn't work. The bathroom had a nasty smell too. The decorations were still super cute and when we opened the windows we had a view of a side canal and it was still an upgrade from a hostel which I was used to living in while traveling so I was perfectly happy with it :) Plus we got a free breakfast buffet in the morning, who can complain with that? ;)
Once we dropped our bags off and settled in we were all starving and decided to go find some grub. We decided were close to the grand canal so we found a place along there to eat. It was really peaceful to watch the boats go by and hear the ripple of the water :) We ate at a place further down on the opposite side of where all the main touristy places were. It had a special price three course dinner menu which we all decided to get. I had seafood spaghetti, fried seafood, and a delicious vanilla panna cotta with chocolate syrup for desert. Gerry had the same thing but his dessert had Carmel sauce and mom had veal and something else. I can't remember right now.
The food was good, but I ended up getting a tummy ache from it because I had not eaten fried food in forever. :-/ After dinner we headed over to Campo San' Margherita. I had planned on bringing my parents to DuChamp to have them try their Bellini's which are super delicious, but their outside seating was full, so instead we went across to Orange Bar where we each had a beverage while watching for a table to open up at DuChamp. It cleared out and we finished up our drinks then bounced over to DuChamp, I was glad because my Bellini at Orange Bar did not do justice compared to the Bellini at DuChamp. The juice there is just so much more fresh and it's the perfect mix with the white wine and champagne. :) mmmm! Thinking about it now really makes me want another one!
After we finished up there we headed back to the hotel to turn in. It was a good first night, but we were all very exhausted from the traveling. We slept with the windows open falling asleep to the soft sound of the ripples of water against the canal.
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