Driving to Milan turned out to be a difficult affair. The city used ring road system so you might end up circumventing the city without actually able to get right in. Our destination is the Milano train station. It took us many stops, many asking before we finally ended up at the train station. Rushed into the station to get tickets to Venice. No straight train must transfer at Verona. And our good old Kilometric Pass 3000km was finally all used up, so we need to top up the outstanding amount. Guess this is our last FS train ride in Italy.
While transiting at Verona (about 10 minutes transit time), we raced down to the MacDonald and get ourselves a take away meal before we raced to the platform to catch the train. Imagine doing that with the backpack. The moment our butts were on the seats, the train started moving. Phew.
This is the cool part. Train is the only thing that can travel into the Venice Island proper. So our train actually took the causeway, slowly but steadily, threading the water and entered Venice main island. Similar to the causeway linking Malaysia and Singapore. Once the train finished the causeway, we have reached Venice Santa Lucia Train Station.
Venezia here we reached!
Once we got down, we went to the train counter and asked how we get to Munich from here to catch our flights. The counter lady gave us two options and somehow the option through Innsbruck captured our attention. Neither of us has been to Innsbruck and neither of us knew what is it famous for, but somehow we were inclined to go via Innsbruck. We were even thinking of breaking our journey at this town. The lady replied that we could break our journey at Innsbruck before we continue on to Munich. We were pretty excited at this opportunity and wonder how Innsbruck is like.
First thing first. Venice is a giant maze and those free maps you got from the Tourist Information counter inside the train station is of little help. We have to get to the hostel by Vaporetto (water taxi).
It was by a few wrong vaporetto that we finally got to the HI hostel and be told the accommodation is all full.
All full.
And it is already 6pm by the time we reached.
How now brown cow?
We took the vaporetto out and get back to the train station. Wandered around and came across a small hotel: Archie’s’ Place. The sign said: Available. Z and I quickly enquire the price. Doesn’t sound too bad actually. We immediately check in and the moment we walked in, the owner Archie immediately changed the available sign to full.
That was a close shave. It calls for decisiveness when it comes to getting a room in Venezia.
Once the room is settled, we walked out to find food. Came across a pizza take away shop and just randomly point to a pizza name (don’t even know how the pizza looked like). Brought back to Archie’s Place to enjoy the dinner. When we finally opened up the box, we were pleasantly surprised.
There was an egg yolk right in the middle of the pizza. It looked like salted egg.
We helped ourselves to the pizza. Delicious.
The next day, we walked around Venice.
We love St Mark’s Square. Murano Glass. Rialto Bridge. It is buzzling with people. Queuing at McDonald’s toilet is easily half-an-hour affair. And I got lost countless of times. Whenever I got lost, follow the signs on the wall and go to Rialto Bridge / St Mark’s Square and you will be fine.
We went back to the hotel pretty early in the evening. I brought some coins to the public phone to make some calls. When I am walking back to the hotel, something is wrong.
The water was oozing out of the drain holes on both sides of the walkway.
My path becomes narrower and narrower. It is a matter of time my feet will get wet and I was in sleepers.
I quickened my pace. The sky looked ominously dark. I must get in Archie’s Place before the rain come.
The moment I step back to the hotel, it started drizzling. Drizzle turn into rain. And rain turned into flood. The streets were full of yellow boots people walking around, trying to move their belongings/merchandise higher on the shelf. Water pumps were in full force to pump out water from the houses. As for Archie’s, when I look down the stairway, the lobby and the entrance is entirely soaked in seawater. Rain + high tide = acqua alta" (high water). It is quite a scene to watch the rain caused havoc in Venice, from the second floor window of my room. At least we were left high and dry.
The next morning, when we walked past all the shops, the keepers were busy clearing the soaked merchandise. Discounts were lavishly given.
We boarded the train and are ready to leave Italy behind us.
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