Italy! April 16 Saturday - Going to Venice

We woke up early the next morning to pack up our belongings and catch the 9:16 a.m. train from Vernazza, we would have three train changes this day before arriving at Venezia S. Lucia at 2:20 p.m. The train system in Italy has been very easy to follow as I had mentioned, stations have city signs in bold letters. We preordered tickets at home and printed them out, and we found that station officers checked tickets randomly, if you don't have a ticket you can be fined on the spot or kicked off the train, both of which we witnessed.

The entry to the northeastern city of Venice was dramatic, bodies of water on either side of the train tracks.  Exiting the station, we were met with the Grand Canal of Venice, boats, buildings, and water, no cars!  From S. Lucia Venice Station we took an ACTV Public Ferry to the closest stop to our hotel. This still had us walking down winding streets and across bridges to get to the Ai Mori d'Oriente Hotel. Thank goodness we arrived during daylight in good weather, as it had been everyday during our trip.  The hotel room was over-the-top, just like this city!