August 20, 2009 – Train Trip From Rome To Venice

Today we went for an exciting trip taking us to Venice – one of the most popular places in the world, also named “the most beautiful city built by man” and “one of Europe’s most romantic cities“. Spending two weeks in Italy, we just had to see that fascinating city and its attractions.

Rialto Bridge over Grand Canal in Venice

Venice is among the most popular tourist destinations in the world; it’s the world’s 28th most internationally visited city, with almost 3 million international visitors (2006 data).

Venice is Europe’s largest urban car-free area. It is famous for its canals and is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by 177 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands are connected by 455 bridges. In the old centre, the canals serve the function of roads; the only form of transport there is on water or on foot. In the 19th century a causeway to the mainland brought a railway station to Venice, and an automobile causeway and parking lot was added in the 20th century.

Most popular way to travel is Venice is by motorized water buses (called “vaporetti“, singular – vaporetto), which have 25 regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands.

The classical Venetian boat is the gondola, usually lushly appointed with crushed velvet seats and Persian rugs. They are now mostly used by tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. The gondoliers, by law, must be born in Venice. They typically charge between €80 and €100 for a 40-minute ride. There are also less-fancy gondolas (and much cheaper) in common use by Venetians – called “traghetti“; they are foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points. Venice also has the water taxis to move between the areas of the city.

Here is what happened during this day:

• Got up very early to be able to take the first bus (#92) from the Via Salaria/Via Aniene stop to the Termini station; got to the station about 5:50 AM. As usually, we didn’t use the hotel’s wake-up service; just used our good old one alarm clock from the Radio Shack that has never disappointed us. At the station we made sure that the train would be leaving from Platform 7 and started looking for something to eat for early breakfast, but everything was still closed; well, they were getting ready to open.
• About 6:00 AM we got the espresso coffee and something small to eat. Like all Italians, we were enjoying the coffee standing in front of the coffee bar, exchanging some nice words with the staff and the customers. They spoke English pretty well.
• Train to Venice left at 6:50 AM from Platform 7, arrived at the Venice Santa Lucia station (known as VSL) around 11:15 AM. We got off and having some time before the hotel check-in, we did some window-shopping nearby the station and visited the Scalzi Church. Walked over the Grand Canal by the Ponte Scalzi.
• Our hotel – Hotel Airone was very close. Actually, the door was closed! But the note was saying something to the effect that the the reception desk was at the Hotel Canal. We found it just next door, but it was 12:15 PM and our room was not ready yet, so we had to wait. With a credit card, we paid €107 for the room that we reserved online at home on June 21. The reservation notice stated that their check-in time was 2 PM, but they were nice and gave us the key when we came back at 1:15 PM. It was really very nice, because we had so little time to see so many attractions. We rested just a little bit in the room. That room and the hotel was nothing fancy; appeared to be a good value for the money and the location was excellent – right across the train station on the other side of the Grand Canal.
• 2:10 PM. After some rest we left the hotel and walked to Piazzale Roma where we bought 24-hour ACTV vaporetto passes. At €18 each, it was quite expensive, but it was money well-spent as we knew that we would be able to move around Venice easily.
• Found new, modern Calatrava Bridge crossing the Grand Canal and walked back to the train station side. There was a vaporetto stop in front of the station. The Calatrava Bridge looked very familiar. Later we realized that it was built by Santiago Calatrava – that famous Spanish architect whose fascinating work we also saw in Athens. He built there the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens “Spiros Louis” or OACA (Greek: OAKA). The Athenian complex is huge and modern, some of the items in the complex are very similar to those in the bridge (e.g. the arches). Unfortunately, we remember the OAKA complex as underutilized; there are plans, however, to create there an art-filled park.
• From the stop in front of the station we wanted to take a vaporetto to Piazza San Marco by having a nice self-guided Grand Canal cruise. (Before jumping on the boat we had to validate our tickets in one of the automatic checkers). We were very excited about going for the Grand Canal cruise, however the information at the stop wasn’t the best, so instead of taking either boat #1 or #2, we took #51, which actually wasn’t a Grand Canal cruise at all! It was a counterclockwise route that connects the Lido to Fondamenta Nove. Fortunately, it had a stop near Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square); it was San Zaccaria-Piazza San Marco stop – where we arrived at 3:15 PM. So the actual Grand Canal trip was still ahead of us, but at least we found the famous tourist jewel – St. Mark’s Square and St. Mark’s Basilica.

St. Mark's Square, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice

• Here is the order in which we stopped at the most important attractions near Piazza San Marco: Victor Emmanuel equestrian statue – Bridge of Sighs 3:25 PM – Doge’s Palace – San Marco Column – Piazza San Marco – St. Mark’s Campanile 3:30 PM – St. Mark’s Clock Tower
• There was a line to get to the Basilica di San Marco (link to the official site; don’t miss the virtual tour!). The line wasn’t too long and it was moving fast, so we entered the basilica around 3:45 PM.
• After seeing that fascinating church that houses the remains of St. Mark, we visited the area around Piazza San Marco and the Doge’s Palace and had something to eat there.
• Later we finally took our Grand Canal cruise, or at least it was a first part of it when the vaporetto was taking us to the Santa Maria della Salute Church (arrived there at 5:20 PM). We visited that church, then walked around and saw beautiful streets and canals (e.g. Calle San Gregorio 5:35 PM, Calle Querini ~5:45 PM; Ristorante Messner 5:44 PM, Hotel della Salute).

Santa Maria della Salute Church, Venice

• Then from about 6 PM we continued our Grand Canal cruise when the vaporetto boat took us in the direction of the Rialto Bridge. We were passing Peggy Guggenheim Collection 6:11 PM and we stopped at Accademia Gallery/Accademia Bridge (6:15 PM) – to see the location of tomorrow’s important visit – the Accademia Gallery. We had the tickets already; we bought them online at home; our entry time was 9 AM. But we wanted to see the gallery in advance of our actual visit so that we wouldn’t miss it with such early entry time. It was also an opportunity to visit the WC facility (never enough of them…).
• Continued the vaporetto cruise and got to the Rialto Bridge around 7:00 PM.
• Some Rialto Bridge shopping 7:10 PM; then just wandering around and enjoying fascinating Venetian views before the sunset. Here are some places we went to: Calle Gallazza 7:17 PM – Calle del Luganegher 7:38 PM – Ponte San Polo 8:00 PM – Casa di Carlo Goldoni (8:04 PM) [traghetto Palazzo Grasse/…mpiello Toma 8:05 PM] – Basilica/Campo dei Frari 8:10 PM - San Rocco/Scuola Grande di Roca 8:26 PM
• Then suddenly we got lost in Venice… It was getting dark and we didn’t have a good city map; the one we have is almost useless. There were signs on the houses, with arrows pointing us to the vaporetto stops, but they were like the Ikea directions… We quickly realized that their only aim was to make us visit as many restaurants in Venice as possible! Following those signs was like wandering around in the labirynth. We asked a number of people to show us on the map where we were, but they appeared to know less than we knew.

One of the beautiful canals in Venice

• Finally we got to the San Toma vaporetto stop and from there we’re going back to the hotel.
At the hotel we took a look at the map and realized that in fact we were quite close when we were “lost” near San Rocco/Scuola Grande di Roca. We easily could walk the distance to the hotel – if we knew where we were!