Venice & Lido Italy - Day 6 thru 8

     We were all smiles now that we had received our bags and had ample clothes to proceed with the trip.  So the morning we left Siena we caught the train to Venice, which stopped in Florence where we would have to change trains.  Unfortunately, the train in Florence was a 2 hour wait but at least we wouldn't be late, well that's what we thought.

     Upon arriving in Florence we immediately bought out tickets to Venice to avoid any problems.  Well about 10 minutes before we were to board the train, the girls decided they needed to go to the bathroom, Really!  So as expected the train started boarding and the girls were not back yet, Great!  I would expect that they have facilities on the train so why did they need to potty at the station?  I got nothing.  I saw Mimi running back but without Cindy, John was yelling "Where's Cindy?" Mimi said "She's coming".  To make a long story short they both arrived in time so that we could board the train.  

     Once we boarded, the stress eased and we started looking for our seats, which John and I had scoped out earlier based on our vast knowledge of Italian that we had learned listening to language tapes for the last 3 months.  The thing is, we weren't as proficient as we thought because we confidently sat down in the first class seats and even directed others to their seats but minutes later we found out from the seat owners that we were in their seats.  We gathered up our luggage and trudged back 6 cars to the coach section with out tails between our legs. Verifying the phrase Stupid Americans!  

     We arrived in Venice and immediately boarded a water bus to our hotel on the island of Lido.  That was a pain with all the luggage.  After a short ride to Lido we walked several blocks to the hotel only to find out they booked us in another hotel because they said the bathrooms were broken, sounded suspicious, but whatever.  We then walked a few blocks to our new hotel which had no A/C but it seemed decent, really, what choice did we have.  We spent the rest of the day in Lido walking around he island and down to the beach, beautiful place.

     Early the next morning we took the water bus to Venice and strolled around the city.  We saw a lot of street performers and got our picture taken with Atlas.   We were really hungry and for some reason, don't ask me why we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch and ate pasta.  That's just crazy; it's like going to a vegetarian restaurant and asking for a hamburger.  Stupid Americans!  We then visited St. Marks Square near the canal and saw many yachts including one that had an airplane, hovercraft, pontoon boat and 2 wave runners on board.  It was wan odd scene seeing this luxurious yacht docked next to house where they had laundry strung up on lines to dry.  

     We took a tour of the canals on a water taxi which was fun and relaxing.  They served us Bellini cocktails on the tour, now who feels like the rich and famous.  After a full day we took the water bus back to Lido, rested a bit before we went to dinner.  Lido was a beautiful island and easy to walk around with very little traffic. There were no cars in Venice but you could have a car on Lido if you had to have it shipped there so it really wasn't worth the trouble.  It was quiet most of the evenings in Lido except for the night some drunks were singing on the way home from the bar about 2 am.  Oh Well! They were happy drunks.

     We next day we left early thinking the water bus wouldn't be crowded but we were wrong.  We were taking the train to Rome but we missed the 10:20am so we had to take the one at 11:20am. Boarded the train and sat in the wrong seats again, what can I say but Stupid Americans!  Venice and Lido were fun and the people were friendly but we should have planned to stay at least 2 more days to take in a few more sites.  Vacations are fun, I'm never disappointed but sometimes surprised.