This was a travel day from Rome to Venice via the high speed train.
To get to the train station we took the local city bus to the train station. The bus ride turned out to be one of those embarrassing tourist moments. We had bought bus tickets, and we got on at the front of the bus. It was rush hour and the bus was packed and we had our luggage. However the little yellow machine for validating the ticket was at the very back of the bus! As we were trying to figure out where to stamp the tickets, a very bad tempered ticket controller got on. Luckily she didn't give us a hard time, maybe because we were nice about it, and she took our tickets to the back to validate for us. There were other tourists on board who were not so nice, and started arguing with the ticket controller. It got ugly with lots of heated shouting.
We finally got to the station, found the platform, and boarded the train with no problem. The ride itself went quickly, just 4 hours to Venice. It was cool to see Venice approaching as the train crossed the water.
Once in Venice it was just a 15 minute walk to the hotel.
The hotel is in what was once a grand old house, right on a small canal, and the inside looked palacial.
We spent the rest of the day walking around. As soon as we stepped out the door of our hotel, a gondola passed underneath. It was was tempting to go photo-crazy in the unique environment of Venice: "Oh look, there's a canal, oh there's another on, wow that one looks so cool, ....".
We first stopped for dinner and then made our way to the Rialto bridge, with great views of the Grand Canal.
A fun story unfolded there. Suddenly everyone one the bridge started cheering and there was a young couple on a gondola below, kissing. Apparently he had just got down on one knee and proposed. He raised his arm in the air and shouted "She said yes!"
Afterward we continued on to San Marco square, with St. Mark's basilica, before heading back to the hotel.
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