August 3 – Day 22
Today was a transit day. We left Cinque Terre at 9am on train from Riomaggiore to Pisa, then got another train from Pisa to Florence, and finally a train from Florence to Venice. The first two trains were regional trains, and the scenery wasn’t anything too special. From Florence to Venice, we were on a really nice fast train though, going through some beautiful scenery. When we arrived in Venice, we caught the water bus to our hotel. It is a huge ripoff – 6.50 Euro for a single, one way ticket. After unpacking, we walked the main streets back to the middle of town, and shopped. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped for dinner. The heavens opened, and it poured with rain for the half hour jog back to the hotel. We were drenched but happy :)
August 4 – Day 23
From our hotel, it was a quick ferry across to Murano to see the glass blowers in action, and do some more souvenir shopping. It was impressive watching them make a vase from scratch. Apparently it is passed through the family, and it takes over a decade of training to become a ‘master’. We had a long walk through Murano before stopping for lunch (pizza), then heading back to the ferry to the main island. Next we got lost a few times walking to Piazza San Marco, which was fun. It is a nice place to get lost in. After many dead ends, we found Piazza San Marco, and had a look at the basilica and other sights in the area. It was too late in the day to line up for anything, so we kept walking to Rialto Bridge. After that we kept on walking back to our hotel, and made changes to our itinerary:
- One night in Bucharest instead of 4
- Train to Brasov – stay 3 nights
- Train to Budapest (unchanged stay)
- Train direct to Split, stay for 2 nights
- Ferry to Hvar, stay 2 nights
- Ferry and Bus to Dubrovnik, stay 4 nights (unchanged)
We are shortening our stay in Bucharest and dropping four nights in Zagreb (we still have one night there at the end).
August 5 – Day 24
After breakfast, we headed back to Piazza San Marco, and went inside the Basilica this time. It was quite different to the others we have seen so far, with a lot of intricate mosaic work. It was free to get in but once you were inside, they charge to see anything. We went into the museum and the second level, but skipped the other parts. The audio guides were not available, which was annoying, as we didn’t really get to learn much about it. Simone had worn shorts, forgetting the dress code, and had to buy a dashing orange sheet to wear. I took photos :) After the Basilica, we climbed the bell tower, which is near by. It gave us a great view, and an overview of the history of Venice, and it’s most important sites. We had forgotten to bring our Eurail passes to book our train to Rome, so we got the water bus back to the hotel, and got some nice views from the canals. We had delicious pizza near our hotel (much cheaper there), before walking back to the train station to reserve out seats. We walked and shopped and had drinks for a while, before having a really nice dinner near the hotel. I had my first calzone of Italy, it was huge and delicious :)