First I need to finish the tail end of France because we have the greatest little side trip on the way to the airport in Nice.
Our friend Chris had given us the name of two small towns she loved when she lived in Nice. One of them was Villefranche. We had lots of time to kill so we plugged it into the GPS and off we went. What a crazy drive - windy one way roads and very narrow ones at that. If you saw my Snapchat you saw it was like a live version of Super Mario! The houses were so cool and there were lots of flower window boxes which I love.
The town is actually partially built into a hillside and stunningly beautiful. There is a cove that holds a marina and a beach. It's not far from Monoco.
We had lunch down at the marina at a table on the water side. The restaurants are on the main side of the street and there are tables on the water side so the waiters actually walk across the street to wait on you. While we were sitting there we watched a Bently and Rolls Royce pull up....yeah we didn't pick that restaurant - we picked a small pizzaria! There was a small boat rental company right by our table so we had fun watching renters come and go - especially the young ladies that ran their rental boat into another boat - why I always laugh when I see stuff like that I will never know. Bad boat Karma - I better watch out!After lunch we hiked back up the hillside to our parking spot and headed to the airport.
We got thru the French security super easy - I really don't get why some airports are so security minded and others are not but the security guy gold me "good job" for following the directions (pictures) on what needs to go into the bins so I was fine with it - then we had to wait and wait and wait. We had got thru car rental check in and security way faster than expected and figured we would catch up on Facebook etc on our phones - yeah well NO the internet connection in Nice was horrid. So we literally just sat for 2.5 hrs until they announced our flight to Venice. They don't announce the gates until the last minute so I kept busy going to look at the departures board to see what gate we should shit by.
We gave our boarding passes and then they shuffle us into this holding area which I'm not sure why since our plane was not even there yet! The highlight (again bad karma for laughing) was getting to watch the luggage handlers drop a container of luggage while taking a corner too fast on the tarmac. I called that one because they were just piled up with no sides...he he he. Short 50 minute flight to Venice and yes we slept the whole way - I guess we should just fly short hops from now on if we want to sleep.
We had gate checked our bags (for earlier boarding - little trick we learned) but the payback was then waiting for our bags which took about an hour. Nick waited while I tried to figure out from these vending machines how to get our water transportation into Venice. They offer multiple choices - Private Taxi Boat for about 100 Eur one way (yeah no), Public Water Bus for 50 Eur round trip. We chose the later but wanted to talk to a person to make sure we got the right one so we went thru "customs" which was a man waving at us (lol) and found the human occupied ticket desk. We found an angel on earth because she actually highlighted on a map which stop for us to get off and and how to "find" our hotel. "Find" being the key word as you will see below.
We had to walk to the water bus which felt like a mile in flip flops and with our bags but Nick says it was only 1/2 a mile then load onto this holding container type thing which I thought was the boat. Then the boat shows up and we all load onto that. They make you sit down in the bottom of the boat which was stuffy (very humid here) and leave your luggage up on deck. We were so tired and hot and sweaty that it was not a fun ride - you couldn't see anything as you were packed like sardines in a can. We were very thankful once we got off at our stop and could actually see Venice itself.
It was getting dark as we got off the water bus and we thought - ok no problem, let's find our hotel. He he he....if we thought the alley's and streets were crazy in other cities we were in for the surprise of our lives here! It was seriously like being in a crazy maze. Our hotel from the water bus drop off is several alleys, past a church, down another alley, take a right at the restaurant down another dark narrow alley, thru a gate and "ureka" there it is. Mind you it was DARK, there are stairs EVERYWHERE (super fun with luggage - even small stuff) - and nothing is marked except for tiny signs every once in a while if you are lucky. We got there after the front desk closed but I had spoken to the manager earlier in the day so he gave us the code and had left us our check in information on the front desk.
For all the craziness it took to find it- nothing can quite describe this boutique style hotel. It's simply amazing. Full of charm, super clean and our room is right on a canal. I mean you could touch a boat from our window. Every key is big - (we got one to the room, one to the front door of the hotel and one to the gate in the alley) don't know why I find that charming but I do!We were starving and we found that most restaurants close earlier than they did in France but we found a super fun Jazz Bar and had amazing food and drinks. Another win was it was just around the corner from our hotel.
Breakfast came with our room so we got up the next morning and had the most amazing breakfast up in the salon/dining area. So fun to sit and listen to people talk in different languages. They had a croissant filled with vanilla creme that Nick is "this close" to what he remembers as a child. They would go camping in Italy and go to Ravenna to get donuts that had this same creme in them.
We walked all over Venice which for us was about 9 miles yesterday. I'm not quite sure how to explain what it is like here. It's got a very whimsical/magical feel. Canals everywhere, charm, history, and awesome architecture. One hotel we found out is Marco Polo's family home and was built in the 1300's. This place is just so incredibly old it's crazy to imagine what it was like when it was being built.
There are street vendors, painters, musicians and of course tons of tourists. At moments it got very stuffy in some of the alley ways so we crossed the Grand Canal and went to the other side for a while. I told Nick Disney and Las Vegas have done a very good job recreating the feel but you can tell this is real - it's gritty and dirty and real life.
We took a gondola ride and no they don't sing like they do in Vegas - I suppose if you offer to pay them they will but our young captain was a really nice guy - he loves to travel so we talked to him a lot about that. Apparently it's really dead in the winter time so there is no work which is when he travels.San Marco square is something to see - absolutely huge and full of restaurants and shops,old buildings and the most beautiful church that we didn't go in because the line was so long. In the afternoon when we came back thru we noticed water like it had rained but we knew it had not. We figured it must be "high tide" and they actually closed the church due to the water (people would have to walk thru to get inside). Very crazy that this is what they deal with living on an island.
We went up the tower in San Marco square where you can see the entire area. So incredible to see what a bustling area it is. Many islands and so many buildings it's crazy. My fear of building heights was fine up there because there was a wall thank god but it was so windy. We had heard rain was coming but we never felt any. It was so incredibly humid that the wind felt so good!The food here is good - the Pizza we have had is really good and we had pasta at this "to go" place that was recommended to us. It was pretty tasty and super fresh which was nice. Of course Gelato is everywhere and I tried it for the first time. Some people swear by it - to me it's just ok. I'm definately more of an ice cream snob.
The things we have noticed about restaurants here is they are not as "service" minded. They are not asking if you want refills on anything (not even drinks) and it takes forever to get your check, you have to ask for water (still or sparkling) and at times Nick we felt like we were being ignored but I think it's just the different culture. In France you do not tip and here you don't have to but apparently they expect it from Americans. Every food bill here has had a 12% service fee added to it. I don't know if that is just a Venice thing since it's so super tourist oriented or an Italy thing overall. We shall soon find out!
You would all be so proud of me - I have learned how to do laundry in your bathroom sink or bathtub. Yes there is nowhere that we have found to do laundry so I'm just winging it - everything dries pretty fast and yes the hairdryer works like an iron - quite crafty and proud of myself for this one!
We are packing now and headed back to the water boat to go back to the airport and get our car - then onto Florence for two nights!
Florence - La Spezia (Cinque Terra) and then London to meet our friends Mike and Yvonne!
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