This is the third part chronicling my trip to Italy. Parts 1 and 2 take me from Michigan to Rome and the several days that my sister and I spent in Rome. Part 3 takes us through Venice and the crazy trip to Florence. You can view part 1 here. You can view part 2 here.
The last morning we woke up in Rome was beautiful. The sun was shining and it wasn't too hot. We packed our bags, checked out, and set off across the Roman streets to Roma Termini, the main train station in town. Having already booked our tickets, we were in no real rush and found our way to the concessions for a snack on the train and a quick drink before we left.
At this point in the trip, we were in good spirits and rather excited to move on to a new city. Rome was certainly a lovely place and had tons of old sights, but we were ready for some new scenery.
The train was at the platform and we boarded with little difficulty. In fact, much of the train was empty to begin, so we were able to settle in, grab a book, and even catch a nap. The high speed train would put us in Venice in about 3 hours.
We had a brief stop in Florence, a place we knew we would be returning to, and a few other stops on the way to Venice. I remember taking a nap and waking up as the train was slowing down for our second to last stop, the mainland at Venice. As I woke up, we were crossing the causeway that connects the mainland to Venice. Yes, Venice is an island. The causeway is the only strip of land that connects trains, cars, and busses to the main station and boats to the city.
If you've ever seen 'The Tourist' the station they arrive at is the same station we arrived in, naturally. The station is the major hub for transport and you are simply dumped off into Venice. There is a huge canal, lots of people, and buildings right next to the canals. Plus, lots and lots of boats and docks. The only thing we really knew about our hotel was that it was in San Marco, so the best thing we could think of was to board a water taxi to San Marco. We were fortunate enough to be given two water taxi passes from travelers who were leaving with cards that were good for much of the day. So, using those cards, we got our first view of Venice the only way you should, by boat.
The challenge was that it was very sunny and very hot, and with a large bag on your back, sweat was running in some of those aforementioned places I never knew about. But the view was so stunning that it was a constant battle of being hot and uncomfortable and trying to see the sights.
We were dumped off in San Marco, the largest and busiest piazza in Venice and were forced to use my sister's iPhone to locate the hotel. I had read that part of Venice's charm was getting lost in the narrow streets and running into canals, but I did not realize just how challenging navigating Venice was. With our large bags we traipsed through the streets in the 90 degree heat walking in circles to try and find our hotel. By sheer stroke of luck, we wandered down a street and found the hotel tucked away into a small courtyard. It was indeed charming and incredibly well air-conditioned, which was wonderful to feel.
After settling into our room we set out to explore Venice. Our entire stay consisted of a lot of walking around and hunting for restaurants in The Lonely Planet guide. We did most of our shopping here as Venice has lots of interesting trinkets made mostly of their famous glass. However, we did find a delicious pastry shop and lots of beautiful picturesque places. Venice is exactly what the pictures look like, but yet it is still so magical to be lost in the smallest of streets and the most beautiful canals. And what makes Venice so unique is the way the culture has adapted completely to using boats and canals to deliver goods and navigate their way around.
There are no real sights to see in Venice besides San Marco's, but Venice itself is more of the sight. The food we ate wasn't particularly great, though we did eat well our first night on the Grand Canal, which made things seem a little Disney-esque with boats floating by, docks filled with teenagers doing some drinking, and us enjoying a meal with fine linen and wonderful wine.
For me, besides the canals, the shops were very lovely. So many artisans doing work with the glass made for great window shopping. Naturally there were a lot of things that seemed to be similar, but I did manage to decide on a glass clock which is now hanging in my apartment.
We discovered that Venice in general seems to be a bit more touristy and by far the most expensive part of the trip. Though the overall feel of Venice is different from any other place you could possibly visit. The parts that make Venice so unique are the reasons why you would visit.
Our last day, prior to catching the train, we stopped to get sandwiches in a shop run by an owner who was blasting opera down the block. He knew all the words (and had a nice voice) and still managed to deliver us some sandwiches for the train. It was a sight that I thought I would probably never see again, and would certainly never see in America. Opera? Yeah, right.
Little did I know that that would be one of the last good things that day. The day we left Venice was the day we experienced the full reality of the Italian train system, and how travel can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare.
The plan was simple, we would take the train from Venice to Florence, change trains and head down to San Gimignano (something like that) a small Tuscan town known for its walls and simple charm. When we arrived at the train station, we would need to catch a bus to get to our hotel, but we could arrive, grab a glass of wine, and then explore the city the next day.
As my tone indicates, this didn't happen. First off, the train from Venice to Florence was occupied by the most obnoxious family that we had met to date. Now, excuse me Italian friends, but we all know you're loud and obnoxious to begin with so I let a lot slide, and Europe in general has different ideas on personal space and how to interact with others. But, the train ride to Florence was the most rudeness that we had experienced so far.
We were surrounded by a husband and wife with three small children. They were loud, smelled like terrible European body odor, and occupied more space than they were supposed to. Already, they were off to a great start. Their kids however, were very rude and climbed over all kinds of seats and suitcases all over the train, without so much as a peep from mom and dad. On top of it all, the man was literally having an arm fight with my over the arm rest. I usually give some leeway for people to begin with, but when I saw he was seeking as much space as possible I decided to fight back. The result was noticeable pressure on my arm as I continued to resist his advance into my space.
I was in a sour mood when we left the train and my sister was annoyed by the obnoxious children so we were ready to hop on the next train and find our hotel. However, we discovered our first problem with the Italian trains. We had been warned that sometimes the trains were late and unreliable, but so far we had done quite well. Until that night.
When we got off in Florence, our first train to Siena was cancelled. It wasn't a huge problem as another train would be leaving in an hour, but the fact remained that we were now inconvenienced. After an already annoying train ride, we now had to sit in a hot and humid train station for a delayed train.
When we arrived at our platform, we were greeted with another wonderful surprise... the train we were riding had only one car. One car. I mean, I have never in my life seen a train with one car. We boarded and grabbed a seat and watched as people continued to file on. As the time crept closer to the time to depart, the train continued to see more and more people board the train, so much so that the conductor began to put people in places that people aren't normally supposed to go.
As inconvenient as this was, we were sitting and knew that we should be okay. So off we went. Across the aisle from us was a very nice Irish woman who was traveling with her new husband and we made some small talk, but only enough to be friendly and relieved that someone spoke English.
It was about three stops in, about a half hour of our hour train ride, that we arrived at a platform FULL of people. Now we all knew how crowded it was and were looking stunned out the windows to wonder how so many people would get on the train. If our looks were anything, they were nothing compared to the faces of the people on the platform, who had clearly been waiting for some time. Their faces said, you have got to be kidding me! How are we supposed to fit on there?
Logic says that we stop, drop people off, and take off, but logic was missing this night. Our car stopped, a few people got off, and several forced their way on the train. I must note that the people who forced their way on were street peddlers, untrustworthy, sneaky people who decided to sit across from us. An uneasy feeling started to settle in my stomach. But the scene on the platform was getting worse. Our conductor decided to venture off to the station and would not allow anyone else on the train. The platform full of people who had already missed the previous train were starting to get riotous. And in my eyes, I knew I had something they wanted, a seat on the train.
I don't often panic. I experience fear, but never one of fear for my life. This night, I was very afraid that something would be missing or that our train would be tipped over because of the riot that was forming outside the train car window. A series of event happened that included several guards forming a line in front of the train car doors, our train sitting at the station for over an hour, and our train pulling away from a full platform at 10 a night. How those people got home, I don't know.
At this point however, my sister and I were not feeling good about a lot of things. For one, the street peddlers still sat across from us. For another, it was dark outside and we were no where near our tiny little Tuscan town.
It was pretty clear we would probably not be going there as the busses stop running late and taxis don't appear in tiny villages on Sunday nights. So a new plan was in order. We struck up conversation with our Irish friend and discovered that Siena, the end of the line, was a bigger city that always had taxis. We could probably find a cheap hotel, eat the bullet on our booking for the other hotel, and figure things out in the morning.
So, we did just that. We rode the train to the end, called a hotel, and took a taxi to the hotel. It wasn't great, but we could have done worse. It was after midnight when we each grabbed a shower and settled into bed. Our minds were racing, but we knew that when the sun came up, we were going to grab the first train out and go back to Florence.
It had been nearly a week and we were running into our first major problem on the trip. We were both thankful to be safe and that we had all our possessions. While we were disappointed that we didn't see the beautiful Tuscan town, we did manage to get back to Florence and were determined to stick to civilization from there on out. We also never boarded another train that had only one car, and I can honestly say that I probably never will.
