Our Italy Adventures: Venice, Day One

Since I’ve reached 40, I’ve tried to make it a point to travel somewhere each year. So far, I have been to Iceland, Hawaii, Canon Beach, New Mexico, Paris (twice), and now Italy in 2023.

 

I write this post, 3 months after my trip. I’ve had a chance to reflect on my experiences. I used to dream of Paris every day before I had a chance to visit. Even my home is Paris inspired. However, I never thought I’d fall more in love with Italy as much as I did recently.

 

After watching a few discovery shows, I’ve been fascinated with world history. Much emphasis on the Ancient Roman History, with the emperors, their form of government and lifestyle. So after seeing where it all began, it gave me chills….but let’s start from the beginning.

 

It was March 11^th, Thursday. Our flight was to leave at around 5pm. The goal was to get to the airport early to have sufficient time to check in our bags. I had a few things to take care of before leaving for the airport. I needed to meet a deadline at work, and I had an important phone meeting at 8am. Long story short, I was able to accomplish it all to the very last minute. I logged off at 11am, gathered my bags, waited for Michelle, and was able to leave for the airport by 12 noon.

 

I ordered overnight parking at a hotel close by the airport and made our way via shuttle.

 

We got to the airport, checked in, and met Sarah and her mom Shari at the gate. First stop was London.

 

After boarding and finding our seats, Michelle and I soon realized that we made it to either business class or priority economy section of the aircraft. Unfortunately, we did not sit together, thanks to an Expedia faux pas (story for another day). Nevertheless, it was a relaxing flight. It was also unfortunate that Sarah and Shari had to sit at behind us, which was a bit cramped and uncomfortable for a 9 hour flight to London.

 

Michelle and I had so much legroom, which is how we figured we were not in coach. Our seats were a little wider. And our meals arrived with real napkins and silverware. We also had a travel kit which included soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. You don’t get those on coach.

  

I didn’t realize it, but I think I fell asleep. The flight did not feel like 9 hours to me. By the time I woke up, they were serving breakfast. And as I looked at the digital map, I saw that we were right above Ireland. I was literally having breakfast over Ireland.

 

We landed in London soon after. Offboarded the plane and sought the ladies room. We had a 4 hour layover in Heathrow. Apparently in London, if you have to pass through security, which we did, you will need to separate all your liquids, and place them in plastic bags. Not doing so, will cause delay if they find any liquids in your bags. The good news though, is that you do not have to remove your shoes upon entering security. We boarded a bus to the terminal. After a few seconds on the bus, we realized, oh my, we’re on the “wrong” side of the road! I guess we were not in Texas anymore! 

 

After finally passing through security, we found a spot to sit and wait. Michelle decided to get some homework done, so I let her use my laptop. Heathrow airport was just so busy. I heard it was one of the busiest airports in the world. We tried to pass the time by people watching. I saw a figure that looked like a mannequin, but turned out to be a cello case.

There was a pigeon who found its’ way inside. It was walking around the waiting area. Michelle and I watched where it would go and chuckled as a little girl across from us saw us chuckling as she wondered what we were chuckling about. We told her there was a pigeon and we wanted to feed it. She didn’t believe us. She said, “Where?” she looked around but found nothing. We pointed at it, but she still couldn’t find it. She kept shaking her head….finally until someone behind her saw the pigeon and told her “It’s over here”! She smiled.

 It was finally time for us to go to our gate. We boarded our plane, and seated at the very back. At this point, Michelle had already started her “Cocoa Pusheen” story to Italy. It was basically Pusheen’s adventures in Italy, where she would take pictures of Pusheen, to bring home to her baby girl Shey, since she couldn’t join us. As she started taking pictures of Pusheen in the aircraft, a young handsome looking flight attendant kindly asked her…”Do you need any help with that”? We all chuckled. She politely said “No, thank you. I’m good”. I thought it was a very kind and funny gesture.

After about an hour and 45 minute flight, we landed at Marco Polo airport in Venice. We noticed that same handsome flight attendant tap the shoulder of a lady 2 rows ahead of us. I think he might have tried to tell her to stay on the plane while everyone else offboarded. Since we were seated in the back, we saw him open the aircraft door at the back and spoke to someone. Then, he came over to relay the message to her.

 

Once we got off, we saw there were 2 Italian police officers waiting. We all wondered if they were there to escort that lady, or arrest her. After a while. Sure enough, they ended up arresting her! We were all bewildered.

 

So we boarded a bus to get to Venice, and find our hotel. During the entire travel period, it felt like everything was just going by so fast. I had previously told the hotel we would probably arrive there by around 4pm. But we had an hour flight delay, and for some reason, I didn’t notice it was already about 6pm when we arrived at the airport. And we still needed to get to the hotel. But getting around in Venice is not easy. There were no roads. You had to either walk around, or take a boat. But getting there to Venice, requires a bus or taxi ride. After that, you’re on your own. Take a boat to the hotel, or your other option would have been to take a boat straight from the airport to the dock of your hotel. That would have been the smarter, but more expensive way to go about it.

We arrived in Venice, so now we needed a boat to get to our hotel. We found one that would take us straight to the hotel’s dock. It was about a 15 minute boat ride. Once we got off the boat, it was dark and well around 8pm! About that time, I needed to find where we would check in. Unfortunately, the hotel’s office was a few blocks away. Side note, in Venice, once you get off your ride, you’re on your own when it comes to bags. We had to haul our heavy bags all the way to the office, and then go back the opposite way to the hotel. I didn’t know this. There were lots of stairs going onto each bridge, and there were about 4 to 5 small connecting bridges we needed to cross to get to the office and back.

 

After finally checking in, the next hurdle we had to cross was finding the hotel. We were told that the hotel would be very close by to the dock we pulled in from, however, we couldn’t find the number. Michelle and I tried looking all over, went behind the streets, past the streets, etc. After calling the office again, we were told that it was right next to the “Football” store. Oh my goodness, it was right there in front of us! We would never had thought it to be right next to the shop, in front of the alley we walked from!

 

The night was far from over! By 8:30, the next obstacle would be to get all of us and our bags onto the 2^nd floor without an elevator!!!! We each probably had a 40 to 50 lb bag to carry up the stairs. If it each took us an average of 5 minutes at the least, with us 4, it took us about 20 minutes minimum to finally get everything in our room and settled. At this point we had not had dinner yet, and we were all starving.

 

It was 9pm and the city was still wide awake. There were places still open, and people still eating dinner. In Italy, dinner was about 2 hours, at least. People love to eat late and enjoy their food, and relax. So restaurants were still open. We found this “Hybrid” restaurant that served Italian food if seated outside, and Japanese food (sushi) if seated inside. We sat outside. We wanted Italian food.

      

We all had a glass of wine, ordered some brushetta, pizza, and seafood pasta. I was excited! I wanted to taste a real Italian pizza! At the first bite, I could taste the freshness of the tomato sauce. I remember Michelle had seafood pasta with clams and mussels. It was a nice relaxing dinner. We toasted and laughed, and ate. We were finally able to slow down after a long day. Right across the street from us, was a gelato shop. So we walked over, and chose different flavors for our cup. I must say, the taste of Italian gelato was so divine! So we ended the day with some gelato, and walked across the street to our hotel, after which we hung out by the windows and watched as everyone else walked by, and talked about our plans for the next day.