Venice!

Today was all about Venice. After getting two full hours of sleep, I was up at 5 am (ok, 5:15) so that we could try to catch an early train to Venice. We caught the very first metro train (6:07am) to Central station and attempted to purchase train tickets. Apparently, the ticket machines won't accept any bills higher than a 10 euro bill, so I got on the regular line. I didn't even attempt to purchase with credit card since it didn't work online yesterday but Rita managed to get it to work. After I purchased my roundtrip tickets from the counter, I realized that my return ticket was not for the correct train, so I had to return to the counter and get it fixed (took about 10 minutes b/c the guy that was at the counter trying to purchase tickets decided he wanted to get into an argument with the guy behind the counter over the ticket price...it is what it is, it's not going to change!). Going to Venice, we managed to get tickets on the 7:15am regional train, which costs about half the price of the intercity trains and takes a half hour longer to get there. The total travel time to Venice from Milan was a little over 3 hours. There were no assigned seats on the regional train so we sat wherever we wanted although the seats were not the most comfortable (it had this stiff neck piece that you could not move - odd design). I listened to my iPod and slept most of the ride there, so I really couldn't tell you much about the trip other than we had a lot of stops! The regional trains are like the equivalent of NJ Transit or SEPTA in Philly.
When we got to Venice, our first challenge was getting ferry tickets to take us around. Rita's guide book quoted the ferry price as 3.5 euros per ride. Ha! When we got there, turns out a single ride was 6.5 euros, and there were several hour and day options. We opted for a 12 hour unlimited ride card for 14 euros. Rita's guide book also indicated that we could take the #3 ferry which is faster than the others. Wrong again. Turns out the #3 ferry is only for residents of Venice. They stick us tourists altogether on the #1 and #2 ferries. Catching the ferry was pretty simple, and the ride to San Marco square was about 25 minutes. We bombarded our way to the back of the ferry for the best seats for taking pictures (one thing the guidebook was right about!), but it has come to my attention that Europeans don't have much of a sense of personal space. It was very annoying trying to take pictures, with a guy leaning over me (completely invading my personal space) trying to see some random sight. I did get some good pictures though, which I've posted. When we got to St. Marks square, there were about a gazillion people there (now I know why the Bocconi folks said Venice is overcrowded with tourists). We got to see the Basilica, which surprisingly doesn't charge a fee for entry, but the line to get inside looked about 3 hours long. Next. We walked around the square trying to find the museums, and ended up on a street which had a number of designer stores. There was a Gucci store, so we went in - again, for Rita's sake. The store was 3 levels, and this male guard blatantly followed us to each and every level. Rita was struggling to bite her tongue. I paid him no mind b/c if I had intention of buying anything, he had killed it. I refuse to patronize stores where I don't feel welcome, so that will likely be my last visit to Gucci (outlet excluded, lol).
We headed back to St. Marks square and stumbled upon the entrance to the museums, and were confronted with highway robbery. Not literally, but that's how I felt about the fact that they didn't offer a single museum entrance fee. In order to see one museum (in our case, the museum of interest was the Doge's Palace), you had to pay a fee of 13 euros for access to all 4 museums in the square plus one of the civic museums. What? Really? After sucking it up and paying the 13 euros, I had really high expectations for the palace. In order to maximize the return on our investment (haha...y'all thought I forgot everything I learned at Wharton...nope, I retained about 5%), we visited the Correr Museum. The museum was surprisingly interesting. It explained the history of Venice, and outlined Venetian life, supposedly from the 13th to 16th centuries, although I saw quite a few artifacts from the 17th century as well. It explained who the doge's were (I was wondering why they had their own palace with dungeons and prisons), and the political hierarchy that existed during those times. Interesting stuff.
After leaving the Correr museum, we headed across the square to Doge's Palace. We read that they had dungeons and prisons there, which sounded like it would be fun to see (yeah I know...so ladylike). Ok, so here is my one piece of advice if you ever go to Venice. Unless you are in excellent physical shape, DO NOT go to the Doge's Palace. That place needed a warning sign that says: "excessive walking ahead, enter at your own risk". Ok, maybe they had a sign that said something to that effect and it was in Italian. I wouldn't rule it out. But I had no warning. The problem with the palace is that the tour is directed by ropes which section off areas and guide you in terms of where to go next. This, however, means that you can't just exit when you get tired. You have to go all the way to the end of the tour. The palace is at least four levels, and there are at least six or seven significant staircases that you have to go up and down, not to mention the smaller ones. Rita and I had to stop several times to catch our breath (and don't laugh - we've both been doing tae-bo so we're not completely out of shape). And the frustrating part, is that you don't get to the dungeons and prisons until the very end, and they're not all that cool. It was pretty boring - no explanations or signage about the prisoners or how they were treated...nothing educational. Just rooms. Sometimes with beds made of wood and cement blocks. Not that exciting. After we finished the tour, I found the closest plush chairs and passed out. We ended up taking a 15 minute nap right there in the chairs, lol. I prefer to think of it as a "power nap". I can only speak for myself but I was exhausted.
Moving on, we left St. Marks square after such as disappointing tour. Rita had read something about a casino, and being from New Orleans, she wanted to check it out. So we hopped back on the ferry. Except, two minutes after we got on, it occurred to us that maybe we should have been taking it in the opposite direction. Oops. We decided to stay on anyway, and just go for the ride, since the ferry just repeats itself when it gets to the last stop. Well, turns out the last stop was Lido. When we saw practically everyone getting off with beach gear, we decided to get off too, and follow the crowds. Lido was absolutely beautiful! It was the first place in Venice where we encountered real streets (you know, with cars and everything), and normal stores (ie. not overpriced for tourists). It reminded me a bit of South Beach in Miami. We stopped for gelato (which was scrumptious - I had strawberry and lemon), then headed in the direction of the crowds, which led us to the beach. I wish we had planned the trip to Lido because it was the perfect day for the beach. There were tons of people laid out and in the water. There was even a woman out there pregnant in a bikini. I will say no more (but I did take a picture). We hung out on the beach for about an hour or so and just took pictures since neither of us had a swimsuit.
After the beach we decided to find food in Lido. Our first stop was a place that had a sign which said "burger." Given we had just celebrated 4th of July and hadn't eaten any burgers, we considered this for a moment. But then Rita wasn't satisfied with the size of the burger. So, we kept it moving and ended up at this "snack bar" which the guide book had recommended for reasonably priced food. Ok, so I knew this was not going to be a good experience the minute I ordered a calzone, and the woman pulled out what looked like pre-packaged calzone bread, and went in the back. Hmmmm. We sat at a table outside and waited for our food. When they brought my food out to me, it looked like a pre-made calzone (it had ham, mozarella and mushrooms), that they heated up and poured some tomato sauce on top of. Needless to say, it didn't taste very fresh either. Call me spoiled, but I have come to enjoy a freshly made calzone and this one left a lot to be desired. However, for 4 euros I sucked it up and was grateful that I was no longer hungry.
Around 5pm, we decided we ought to hop back on the ferry if we wanted to make it to the casino before our 7:51pm train. On the ferry ride back we saw Royal Caribbean's Splendour of the Seas heading out. I had to take a picture for my mom, who is a die hard Royal Caribbean fan and goes on practically all of their new ships. We waved at the cruisers as we passed....oh, memories! I could go for a cruise right now. The casino was located one stop from the train station, and a short walk from the ferry stop. The building blended in with the architecture of the neighborhood so outside of the signs, you could have easily not realized it was even a casino. I learned today that apparently this casino is the world's oldest casino. Who knew? It wasn't very big, but managed to hold a few small rooms of slots, and one table (you hardcore gamblers would have been disappointed). While we were in Lido we had passed the tourism office and they had vouchers for free entry (they actually charge 5 euros normally), a free welcome drink and free scratch off card. We used our voucher, and Rita's scratch off card actually won her 50 euros worth of game play. So I waited around while she scrambled to use the 50 euros (she tried to get me to help, but I'm not very lucky when it comes to gambling and did not want to be responsible for losing money rightfully entitled to her). I think she only gambled part of it and cashed in the rest. At least I hope she did. When we finally left the casino it was 7:22 and we had less than a half hour to catch our train (which was not a joke since it was the last train to Milan for the day). We ran to the ferry stop and there was a ferry there, but it was about to pull off. We rushed and swiped our card and managed to jump onto the ferry just in time. Technically, we shouldn't have boarded. The ferry had actually departed from the stop and pulled away from the dock. But it was close enough that we were able to jump and make it. I don't recommend you try this at home.
Lucky for us, we got to the train station in time but Rita had trouble validating her ticket (you are required to validate your ticket at these machines before getting on the train, otherwise you can get fined). We finally found a machine that validated her ticket and hopped on the intercity train back to Milan. The intercity train is much more comfortable than the regional train, and also assigns you a seat. Since we had purchased our tickets separately, we ended up in the window and aisle of a three seater row. This poor little guy had to sit in between us the entire 3 hour ride back to Milan. I would have offered to switch with him, but I don't do middle seats anywhere. It makes me claustrophobic (I hope I spelled that right). Anyway, I don't recall much about the ride back either b/c I slept that entire ride also. I know I kept waking up and thinking "are we there yet???" You know, like how you used to bug your parents when you were kids before they told you to just shut up and be quiet and they would let you know when we got there (oh, maybe that was just me and my parents, lol). Anyway, once we got back to Central station around 11pm, we still had to hop on the metro back to the apartment. The wait was long, and the station was crowded. When we got on the train, these two Asian ladies were sitting in front of me talking about me. I have no clue what they were saying (don't think they were talking Italian or English) but they blatantly pointed at my midsection area so I assumed they were either talking about my bag or my clothes. Or my size. I don't know, but isn't pointing rude? Or is that just in the states? I was too tired to care. I'm home now, and it's been a great day, all things considered. My thoughts on Venice: it is an absolutely beautiful city, and very romantic. Maybe one of these days I will return for my honeymoon (y'all can keep your comments to yourself, lol). I have some more sleep to catch up on. Buona notte! Here are pics from Venice: http://picasaweb.google.com/keeshaun/Venice