25 April 2005 - Venice
Venice hotel is SWANK. For one, it is a HOTEL, not a hostel, though it was listed on the hostel website. Hotel Venice Villa Dori is outside the city, on the mainland. We got to it after a three hour train ride, one hour of whic we spent in the doorway of one of the cars because of the number of people onboard and the ensuing lack of seats. The other two hours, after people got off at Bologna, we managed to score seats, in a first-class carriage, during which we talked a LOT with an older couple from California. I noted later that we seem to talk to a lot of old people on this trip -- we did on a bus in Rome, too.
From the train station was a bus to the hotel. The receptionist lady is really awesome; sh explained exactly how to get into town and back and gave us a printout of the instructions with a map. There is free internet here and the place is AWESOME-looking! I took many pictures of our room, the walls are all fabric, there's a skylight and a chandelier AND we have our own bathroom and really nice furniture and breakfast tomorrow and it's not costing much more than some of the other places we've stayed in. We like. We like a LOT.
Went into the city, Thea bought a sweater because she realised how cold it was getting, and we just wandered aimlessly until we found someplace to eat. As we left the restaurant we continued on the trend of talking to old people - this time it was a couple from Ottawa; finally some Ontarians! They recognised our accents as Canadian. Then we got lost on our way back and felt the place was a little sketch, but we made it.
Venice is beautiful; I really wish we were staying longer. Despite it being a maze, I lvoe it. I wish I'd been able to reread some stuff from the Kushiel's Legacy books because the La Serenissima of the books is based on the La Serenissima of our world - Venice, of course! It would've been cool to try to find some things from the books, though I doubt we'd have time. I get the Doge's Palace anyway.
Came back, got freaked out by some dogs on the walk from the bus stop, planned out our day for tomorrow. Whee! I love Venice!
From the train station was a bus to the hotel. The receptionist lady is really awesome; sh explained exactly how to get into town and back and gave us a printout of the instructions with a map. There is free internet here and the place is AWESOME-looking! I took many pictures of our room, the walls are all fabric, there's a skylight and a chandelier AND we have our own bathroom and really nice furniture and breakfast tomorrow and it's not costing much more than some of the other places we've stayed in. We like. We like a LOT.
Went into the city, Thea bought a sweater because she realised how cold it was getting, and we just wandered aimlessly until we found someplace to eat. As we left the restaurant we continued on the trend of talking to old people - this time it was a couple from Ottawa; finally some Ontarians! They recognised our accents as Canadian. Then we got lost on our way back and felt the place was a little sketch, but we made it.
Venice is beautiful; I really wish we were staying longer. Despite it being a maze, I lvoe it. I wish I'd been able to reread some stuff from the Kushiel's Legacy books because the La Serenissima of the books is based on the La Serenissima of our world - Venice, of course! It would've been cool to try to find some things from the books, though I doubt we'd have time. I get the Doge's Palace anyway.
Came back, got freaked out by some dogs on the walk from the bus stop, planned out our day for tomorrow. Whee! I love Venice!