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SWERJK Trip – Days 10, 11, and 12
(Shary, Wendy, in Europe with Ruth, Judy, Kate)
Day 10 – Across Italy to Venice
After an early breakfast, we hurried to the train station to catch the first connection on our way to Venice – glorious Venice!! This is what it was like:
- DEP Monterosso 9:03 …. ARR Viareggio 10:00
- DEP Viareggio 10:11 …. ARR Prato 11:28
- DEP Prato 11:45 …. ARR Bologna 12:43
- DEP Bologna 12:56 …. ARR Venezia 14:49
From the train station, it was just a short walk to the vaparetto (water bus) and a ride down the Grand Canal. What a wonderful introduction to this unique city. Many repairs and renovations have been made since my last visit, but the city is still in a state of “elegant decay”!
We got out at St Mark’s Square, and then walked a short distance to Hotel Riva. This is a great place (I had stayed here on a previous visit and the staff is even nicer now.) Hotel Riva is situated where two canals meet and on the gondola serenade route. From our guest rooms, we were able to enjoy the views overlooking the canal and the music of the serenaders.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering, looking for a good spot for dinner. Then while eating, we met a man who grew up in Wenham – a town next to ours in Massachusetts. What a small world! Next we continued our Gelato Tasting Tour of Europe (our excuse for getting ice cream again!). After wandering a bit – Venice is magical at night – we managed to find our way back to the hotel for the night.
Day 11 – Discovering the Sites of Venice
SWERJK posing in front of the Doges' Palace and in our gondola. This was our friendly gondolier.
We began the day by touring the Doges’ Palace. For 400 years, Venice had been the most powerful of the city-states in Europe and the Doge was the selected leader of the state. The palace today has many treasures including the largest oil painting in the world, Paradise, by Tintoretto. We walked over the Bridge of Sighs to tour the prison – from which we all escaped unharmed.
Murano: Glass blower at work
We then took a vaporetto to the famous fruit, vegetable, and fish market where we purchased some fruit for lunch and the next day’s train trip. Also for lunch, we had the best hot pizza type sandwich, and although we had to eat it standing up, it was delish!
For the afternoon adventure, we took the vaporetto to the island of Murano to see a glass-blowing exhibition, to tour the glass museum there, and to check out the countless shops filled with hand blown glass objects of every type imaginable. Snacking again – great peach iced tea and of course – gelatto!
Back in the city, we were not happy with our dinner choice as we felt hoodwinked by a chef standing in front of the establishment spouting “the good deals.” It turned out to be way too much money with a staff hovering over us. Still, it was a lovely spot, in a garden under a grape trellis. But all was not lost! The largest and cheapest gelato cones were just around the corner!
We wandered about eyeing the gondoliers. After some discussion, we were able to convince one gondolier that a better price for us was better than just standing around! And it worked out great – he was wonderful, amusing, and adjusted his ride to our requests – we stayed on the smaller canals and he took us past Vivaldi’s home which is now a music school! Later, not content with just that water experience, we decided to hop on the vaporetto and cruise the Grand Canal at night. It was beautiful. We finally took our tired bodies back to Hotel Riva and enjoyed our last night overlooking the canals.
Day 12 – To the Foot of the Alps
Our twelfth day dawned with a light sprinkle, the first of our trip. But we were prepared as we made our way to the train station, via the vaporetto. We thought that Venice was even more enchanting in the mist.
When you look up in Venice, you might see: Amazing rooflines, the moon between narrow walkways, a misty morning.
It was to be an all day train ride toward the mountains, via Milano. The Milano station is huge! with pay (1€) bathrooms but extremely clean. Not what I remember 39 years ago! We grabbed some lunch at the station and changed trains for Tirano, a very small town on the Italo-Swiss border.
With the sun shining, the views along the shore of Lake Como were stunning.
In Tirano, the air was refreshing as we walked around looking for a nice place for dinner. Some of us settled on the restaurant at our hotel where we had a yummy and filling meal at a good price.
—> Feel free to ask Ruth Goutal your questions about planning your trip or about her trips to Europe.
