We chosen the inter-city train since it is so much cheaper than EuroRail, although taking this cheaper alternative meant that we need to change at 2 train stations (Prato Centrale and Bologna Centrale). The lady ticketing officer was kind enough to gave us a printout of the estimated departure and arrival time at each station making it much easier for us to keep track of our journey. At each change, we have less than 15mins to get to the connecting train. I had been unwell for the past few days so the task of changing trains falls onto Bel. During the 2 changes, we managed to make it on time to locate and board the connecting train at the correct platform. I guess Bel is much more relaxed after the Bologna change as after that the final destination is Venice. Venice is linked to the main land via a bridge linkway, which very much resembles the linkway between Johor and Singapore.
Coming out from the train station, we didn’t have any problem locating our hotel, Alloggi Agli Artisti, which is just around the corner from the station. By far, this is the nearest we had to lug our luggage compared to Rome and Florence. Our room is very huge and clean, with a small balcony attached. The toilet/bathroom is shared among the guests but they are plentiful on each floor. I went out the balcony, there’s this lady staying next door, taking a smoke at her balcony, greeted me and we started chatting. She was extremely chatty although her English is not very fluent. She told us she just got off the cruise and was so sick of the cruise, making her seasick etc. Then she told us where we should visit in Venice. Since she has been staying here for 2 days, we asked her if she knows where the supermarket is so we can go get some water and supplies. She volunteered to bring us there and also show us around venice although we insisted that it wasn’t necessary. She insisted that she wanted to get out of the room and go for a walk. We agreed to meet 10 mins later at the hallway. Well, during the course of conversation, both Bel and I had a weird feeling regarding that lady as we couldn’t understand why she is so anxious to tag along us. It really made us rather uneasy, but then maybe we just thinking too much. So 10 mins later, we were waiting but the lady didn’t show. We knocked on her door and she asked us to wait a little while. Finally the lady came out with her boy friend. Off we went and the lady kept talking, anxious to show us around, her husband following quietly. We kept our smiles and nods as she speaks. Every so often, she’ll ask her bf to take photos of her and also me to take photos of the places there. I wasn’t interested in taking any photos as the sky was really gloomy and its pretty windy. We got to the supermarket and bought the things we needed. Coming out, the bf suddenly say he need to go to the post office, so Bel and I gladly took the chance to part with them. The lady doesn’t seem happy about the detour her bf wanted to take hence were kind of quarreling with him. It felt so strange and we kept on insisting that we do not mind at all and said we needed to go back to our hotel anyway. Fortunately the lady agreed and we thanked them and parted with them. Phew… what a relief both of us felt.
We went to the tourist information counter at the train station to enquire about the transport day passes. In Venice, the mode of transportation is boat. Lots of gondolas are for hire at quite an expansive rate. Hence we opted for the bigger public boat equivalent to the buses on land. Bel was able to get a Youth pass which covers 3 days ride and also 2 complimentary entrances to the toilet, since she is still under 30. Yes, mind you, Venice charges €1 per entry to the toilet. I had just turned 30 so can only get the normal 3 day pass. Similar to the bus/train system, we need to flash the pass at the sensor before boarding the boat. I felt really sick afterwards that I asked if we could go back to the hotel for a while. My whole body ached a lot and I felt feverish. End up, I spent the rest of the day in the hotel, resting and recuperating. Poor Bel had to explore Venice on her own and then also packed dinner for me. It’s really annoying falling sick during holiday.
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