Florence to Venice...more Renaissance, April 24

We got up pretty early and went to a local bakery for a croissant. Then, we walked to where we parked our car, never having paid, trusting Gian that it was okay....and, it was...whew!

Then, we drove about 240 kilometer to Mestre....on the motorway...cost €18.  Mestre is a town outside Venice.  We parked the car at a helpful garage for €24 for the time we will be here and also sold us train tickets.  The train goes every 10 minutes, so it was easy and then it was about a 10 minute ride to the train station in Venice.  When we got into the square in front of the station...there was Venice and the Grand Canal in front of us!  Amazing.  And, not a cloud in the sky.  Ylena met us after a few minutes and we walked about 15 minurptes to our little studio on Calle Erizzo, number 2126, in the Canneregio district.  We have to wind down little alleyways to get to it.  It is a ground floor apartment with a tiny courtyard.

After a little rest, we walked to the Rialto bridge and then to St Mark's Square.  It was crowded with tourists, but beautiful.  I never knew Venice had so, so many little squares and so many little bridges and canals. And, we did not realize there were so many gondolas!  It has to be seen, despite all the photos I have seen of it all my life.  We walked today 7-8 kilometers, but it was just so beautiful around every sinuous corner...you can see how people get lost, that's for sure.  We probably walked at least an extra kilometer by taking a wrong turn. The city is not a grid!

  

Then, we shopped at Billa and Mark made, fittingly..spaghetti Bolognese.