Day 3 - Venice

A dream come true...we're in Venice!

So beautiful....so amazing.   I keep thinking I'm in Disney, though.    Everything just seems so....perfect!

No problems today leaving London.  We even got smart and took a cab to Victoria Station to catch the Gatwick Express train to the airport.  So, so, so much easier than walking with all those suitcases.  In fact…we decided we weren’t going to lug them over the bridges in Venice and discovered there is a Left Luggage place right where the bus from the Venice airport left us off.   So, we left the two big suitcases there and easily carried the small one over to the hotel.

We're staying at the Best Western Hotel Olimpia which is only one bridge away from the Piazzale Roma where the airport bus dropped us off.   A great place...

Our room is small, but very venetian looking and we overlook the hotel’s garden/breakfast area.   So pretty!  And, Roberto at the front desk knows everything about Venice...but most importantly...he knows the good places to eat!

Our friends, Lynne & Jim, are also staying at the same hotel.  We met them online through Cruise Critic.  They live in Ocala, about 20 minutes north of us, and are a great couple.  Off we went to dinner at a great little place, Ristorante Veneziana, around the corner from the hotel.  It was right on one of the canals and Lynne & I kept pinching ourselves to see if we were dreaming!

We had a great pasta dinner with some wonderful red wine.  Thanks Roberto!   

I’ll tell you…it doesn’t get any better than this!  

 

Since Lynne & Jim had just gotten in from traveling all night, we bid them ciao and wandered about over some bridges just absorbing the sights, sounds and smells of Venice.   And that included some delicious gelato!   OMG…so smooth and creamy…I really do think I’m in heaven!  

In our wanderings we found the vaporetto stop, picked up our 72 hour tickets and said, “C'mon….let’s take a ride”.   So off we went up the Grand Canal sharing the front of the vaporetto with locals and tourists alike.    I’m so glad our first trip on the canal was at night….the soft lights, the slight breeze, the mystique…it was magical!   It was so easy to imagine yourself hundreds of years ago, traveling down the canal on your way to a masquerade ball. 

We got off at the Rialto bridge and just enjoyed the ambiance of the evening, strolling over the bridge and knowing we were the luckiest people in the world.