Venice….a-MAZE-ing!

Blog by Tony (Saturday 17 August, 2019)

Another early morning start and Kellie and I were both up at 4:30am (again) to ensure we had time to check whether the transport signs were correct in saying that buses ran 23hrs/day.  We just had to look out of our window and across the street to the St. Pietro train/bus station to see that this wasn’t true.  The place is well lit up and there was not one bus (nor person or taxi) that appeared within the 30mins we had kept an eye on things.  So Plan B kicked into play and I phoned a taxi service using my Skype to book a taxi.  Our plan was to leave our accomm. by 5:15am so that we were at the Rome train station by 5:45am with time to have some breakfast and be at our platform in plenty of time for our 6:50am departure heading to Venice.

I managed to get through to a human at the end of the line…but they spoke only a little English and told me to wait whilst they got someone else for me to speak with.  Soon a man who spoke a little better English than the last was on the line and I told him that I would like to book a taxi for 5:15am, our pick-up address and where we would like to go.  He asked me for my phone number as he needed to put it in the system in order to be able to make the booking.  I explained that I was calling from my Skype and he said that without me giving him a number that I could be reached on…there would be no booking made.  

Starting to get a little worried in being able to book a taxi with less than 40mins and still finish packing…it dawned on me that I still had my Aussie sim that would work if I enabled the ‘roaming’ feature.  Not worried about the cost of it all at this stage…I inserted the sim but it was Kellie’s sim…not mine.  So I quickly replaced the sim and was able to call the taxi company back and book our taxi.  Within 10mins that taxi had arrived and was waiting for us.

We quickly checked the apartment to make sure that we hadn’t left anything behind…and closed the door behind us and Kellie was first to take the ancient elevator down to the bottom floor.  I followed and we were greeted by a friendly cabbie helping us with our luggage.  When getting in his cab we noticed the meter was already on and at 15 euros (AUD$25).  We told the driver where we wanted to go and we were off.  The roads were very quiet this early in the morning and it was still dark out.  We arrived at Roma Termini less than 20mins later.  I think the total came to 22 euro….but the driver was trying to charge us an extra 5 euro for our luggage.  We said no and we made it clear that we weren’t happy…grabbing our luggage out ourselves and closing the doors.  Kellie gave him another mouthful before we took off for the station.

We got inside and upon looking at the departure times we could see that our departure gate was not displayed as yet…so we headed over to the only cafe that was open and ordered our cappuccinos and two chocolate mini muffins.

Just as expected…the coffees were lukewarm and not very nice.  We waited a little longer before deciding to head into another section of the station and look for the bathroom for Kellie.  She ended up going down an escalator whilst I minded the bags…but she soon was back saying that the bathroom was closed.

Busting to go she went across the road to Mcdonald’s and was gone a little while before coming back with the funniest story.  I will let Kellie fill you in on the comments below (if she’s up to it) but it involves pressing buttons in the dark, dropping something and almost knocking herself out standing back up again…..)

We waited a little while longer before our platform was finally released with just 20min for boarding time before departure.  So we hurried down to the last platform on the other side of the station to where we were standing and managed to find our train, our cabin and our seat.

Going to the train station the day before (near our accomm.) and choosing the seats in First Class and paying for them in advance was a good move….as the seats we chose were right next to where we could store our luggage.  Storing our luggage on the train was the biggest concern that we had as we read reviews of people having their luggage stolen or go missing by storing them on the train…..which is why we purchased and requested the seats that we did.

Although it was First Class…it wasn’t anything flash.  The seats weren’t that comfortable and the meal we got was a choice of a muesli bar or some nuts….plus we were given a bottle of water.  The train took off on time and with a 3hrs 45mins travel time…we were due in to Venice train station at around 10:35am.  I missed most of it as I had nodded off within an hour of leaving Rome…but when I awoke Kellie told me that the train had been delayed and we were stopped at a station for at least an hour.  Soon after she had told me this an announcement come over the PA saying that the train was delayed for approx. 90mins.  

We ended up arriving at Venice at 12:30pm….almost 2hrs longer than we were supposed to.

After disembarking and heading to the main gate…we opened the doors and it was like another world.  Kellie’s face lit up like a Christmas tree and you wouldn’t have known that she’d been up since 4:30am and just spent 6hrs on a train.  It was a total surprise for both of us…and to be at one end of the spectrum standing on a modern train station with all the fancy retail outlets etc. and to walk out the door and see this massive backdrop of an ancient city with canals and boats…was awe inspiring!

OH HOW OUR HAPPINESS WAS ABOUT TO BE RIPPED OUT AND SHATTERED INTO A MILLION PIECES.

After asking directions from both the Information Centre and the travel agent nearby…neither knew of the address that we were wanting to go to.  Alarm bells should have rang right there.  We thought…no worries….we’ll just ask Google Maps to find it for us.  I enabled ‘Roaming’ on my Aussie sim…and entered the address….’Presto!’ Google had located our address and estimated that it would take 23mins to get there by foot.

After being harassed by scouters (again) in asking whether we needed a taxi…and being told that it would cost 70 euro…Kellie and I decided that we would brave the ‘2 lots of stairs’ and the heat…and drag our luggage for the 23mins and save ourselves the 70 euro…and use that money saved to treat ourselves to a nice meal!

Without going into too much detail on what happened next…let’s just say that those 23mins and 2 sets of stairs turned into 3 long hours and god knows how many canals and stairs we had to cross.  Feeling exhausted we sat down to refresh our Google Maps….and an elderly local who couldn’t speak much English could see that we were struggling and lost…and said ‘Where?’…  We showed him the address…that he didn’t seem to know of either. Kellie then said ‘St Mark’s Square’ which by the expression on his face we could see that he knew the place.  He gestured that we were way off track and pointed towards a street and the direction that we should head in.  We restarted our GPS and continued our search.  Another 15mins and we were lost again.  The streets didn’t seem to match up with the GPS so we asked for more directions.  Restaurant staff, souvenir shop staff….all were vague on the street that we were looking for.

I managed to receive a message from our host asking where we were and how come it was so difficult for us to find her place.  She said for me to look at the map that she had on her profile…and not to use Google Maps as it was not reliable.  Good to know!  I was unable to view the map clearly that she had sent to my mobile so it really was of no use to us now.  So with little help from our host except for excuses as to how easy it is to find her place and that it wasn’t her fault that we didn’t us her map.

After walking up one last huge set of stairs (at least 20 steep steps up…and another 20 steps down….lugging our luggage…weaving, stopping…and more weaving in and out of hundreds of tourists whom all seemed to visit Venice the same day as we did) we made it to St. Mark’s Square!  

Somehow…during pain and frustration of it all Kellie managed to remain positive and saw the funny side of it all (if there was one) and kept singing…Madonna’s ‘We made it through the wilderness…somehow we made it through…ooo..oooo.  (referring to Madonna’s hit ‘Like a Virgin’ with her music video filmed in Venice).

We asked another restaurant person, who didn’t know where the street was either…so he asked one of his work mates…who also didn’t know.

He punched it into his Google Maps (as my phone had just gone flat) and UREKA!!! He was confident that he knew the direction of where we could find it.  He pointed in the direction of where to go and told us to ask someone when we got closer and they would know.  

So we pulled up in front of another shop…and Kellie minded our bags again whilst I went in to ask for more directions.  I was too buggered to notice the name of the shop that I went into…but walking past it later it was the Hard Rock Cafe!  So the lady in there spoke fluent English and knew of the street that we would were desperately looking for.  She told us to follow the street right, and then turn another right and it would be the first street on the left near a shop with a green awning.

It’s like we had a rush of adrenalin and quickly followed her directions and we were there!  After 3 long, sweaty, PAINFUL hours… we had finally found the street.  It was a very narrow street and we paid close attention to the street number and had problems locating the address.  Bloody hell….just our luck.  

We walked along and on our first attempt we struggled to find the street number for our accomm 1634.  We found 1632, 1633 and 1635…so using our high IQ and intellect, and with process of elimination we deducted that the unit between 1633 and 1635 was our apartment (even though the number above the door looked as if it read 1631 instead of 1634.  

There was a lock box on the front door (that wasn’t locked) and inside was our key (thank god it was unlocked as my phone was the only place to find the combination and it was flat).

So we breathed a sigh of relief as a turn of the key opened the front door.

With all of the crapiness behind us…we were very much looking forward to cranking the air-con on low and relaxing in the cool lush apartment.  Our vision on what the apartment would look like based on the images that were displayed on AirBnB when we booked the accomm. was 5 Star compared to the reality of how shitty the apartment actually was.

The images were so different to what the place actually looked like that we were unsure as to whether or not we were in the right apartment.  It wasn’t until we went upstairs to the main bedroom and saw the wooden beams on the ceiling that we felt that we were in the right place.

Walking downstairs checking out the lounge room, kitchen and bathroom and then up the steep stairs to the main bedroom with the sloping floors with the walls with scuff marks and cobwebs….to the bathroom that you had to wait about a minute before the hot water would come on (and which rarely stayed on) it felt like a sleazy cheap motel than a clean functional apartment.    

The small narrow cobble street that we were in was long at approx. 40m and anyone walking there with a trolley was very audible from our bedroom and we were often woken in the morning by workers using their trolleys to move linen, products for stores or removing rubbish, as there appeared to be some sort of storage garages located at the end of our street near the dead end.

Also very audible from our bedroom was the banging of hammers by the workers doing some sort of renovation which sounded like it was coming right next door to us. Faulty air-conditioner, weak water pressure in the shower, intermittent hot water in the shower, bidet in your face when going to the toilet, no soap holder in shower, scuff marks and cobwebs on walls, slanting floors, coffee machine with dirty pods and water left in it, no fresh coffee pods to use with coffee machine as well as paper thin walls and being kept awake with a young child’s footsteps running back and forth upstairs and yelling were all good reasons not to ever book this accomm. again, should we one day make it back to Venice.

On a positive note, the location was very close to St. Marks Square with less than a 2min walk from our accomm. (but more than 21 steps as promoted on their AirBnB profile).

We found by luck a wonderful little Italian restaurant hidden in a courtyard in a little side street less than a 5min walk from where we were staying.  We were looking at a menu at one of the many restaurants that lined the small courtyards that would often be situated at common junctions and intersections of the narrow streets…and upon seeing their ‘Starters’ ranging from 25 euro up…we knew that this restaurant was well out of our budget, so we started to walk away…and as we did a waiter approached us and said to come to his restaurant.  He told us that the restaurant that he was wanting to show us the menu to was owned by the same mob…and ushered us through the front doors and through a foyer to a hidden courtyard.  

The courtyard was amazing and like walking into an enchanted garden with grape vines for a ceiling and shrubs landscaped into the detailed brickwork….lit up with lanterns that matched the scenery perfectly and was topped off with a fan to keep the customers cool.

We were the first ones to enter and was told that we could sit wherever we liked…and we were instantly drawn to the small table and chairs nestled in the left hand corner of the courtyard.  We took our seats and was soon met by our waiter who was easily in his late 50’s.

We ordered the usual bottle of water….and after Kellie finally made a decision and ordered her lasagne…I was ready to give my order….but just wanted to clarify the portion size with the waiter (after being majorly disappointed the last time that I had ordered spaghetti in Anacapri).

The waiter said that the portion size was ‘big’ and with that I was happy to place my order for spaghetti and meatballs. Whilst we waited I ordered a bottle of moscato for Kellie as up until now she hadn’t had her favourite drop….and after the day we’ve had she deserved it!

The courtyard was starting to fill up with couples and families and there was a nice atmosphere about the place….and not having eaten anything since leaving Rome 12hrs+ earlier, we were really hungry and looking forward to eating our dinner.

Our waiter arrived first with Kellie’s lasagne which was ‘big’ and then he placed my meal in front of me. Lost for words I looked at Kellie who was laughing and the waiter looked at me and said ‘Good’. I shook my head and Kellie and I both said ‘NO’!.

The portion was easily less than that of Anacapri…so to say I was disappointed was spot on. Both of our meals were delicious and it wasn’t long before I had almost finished mine…when the waiter had appeared out of nowhere with a saucepan scooping out another similar portion of pasta (no meatballs) onto my plate. I was a little embarrassed but very appreciative of the gesture. A thought did cross my mind though as to whether or not the chef had spat in it……as I may have offended him with not being happy with my portion size.

Anyways….spit or not it tasted good and was just enough to fill my bellayyy. To top off what was a wonderful night and a great way to end what started off as a shitty start to Venice…we decided to have dessert. Kellie went for the tiramisu and I had the apple pie with ice cream. Both were yummo…and hit the spot!

Kellie had struggled with the moscato…although she said it was nice and still had half the bottle left. The waiter ended up being a funny guy and took some photos of Kellie and I being silly before giving us a paper bag to take the bottle of moscato home with us.

Content with a lovely evening/meal we enjoyed the nice walk back to our room checking out some of the many shops that lined the streets.

We bought some bottles of water should we get thirsty through the night and headed to our room. We went upstairs to our bedroom and cranked on the air-con as it was very hot and muggy. Relieved to be able to rest and switch off for the day and just relax….we reflected on what a nightmarish start to our 2 day stay in Venice it was.

Getting use to the noises around us the air-con would make a constant clicking sound. I turned off the tilt and sway settings hoping this would stop the noise….but it didn’t….so we resigned to the fact that we had to put up with it. Laying back down and we soon heard people yelling to each other in the street which was very loud as our street was very narrow at roughly 10ft wide. Then there was the thumping sound of a young child running upstairs (as well as the yelling).

We managed to fall to sleep despite the noise as we were tired and exhausted. I don’t remember what time I fell asleep but it was 1:30am when I woke up due to it being very hot and muggy. I looked over at our air-con and it was off. I went over and tried to get it started but was unable to…..so I opened up all the windows the best I could to let some fresh air in. I then texted our host to let her know that there was an issue with the air-con and if she could please have it fixed.

After a while I had fallen off to sleep again.