Venice Day 1

I’m writing this on the train from Rome to Venice. Usually I would be sitting and relaxing, looking out the window at the Italian countryside, but not this journey! The fast train does a lot of its travel through tunnels, and since it is the same train I caught to and from Florence a couple of weeks ago I knew to bring something to amuse myself while trying to pop my ears as we go through the tunnels at around 250 kms an hour!

The times I do get a glimpse of the country side, it is mostly really green (winter here) and I have seen a couple of hilltop towns, but mostly the hills are covered in cloud. The grape vines are bare and the field are mostly empty, no farmers out on the land today. The sun is shining but brrrrr it’s cold if you can’t get in it. I told my taxi driver this morning I was going to Venezia – he thought I would be going to Firenze, I don’t know why – and he said “Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr penso Venezia freddo!!!” which translates to “Shit Venice is going to be cold!” (sort of!).

Yesterday was my last day in Roma. I packed a parcel of stuff to send home and struggled with it as I walked in the drizzle rain, avoiding the puddles and flooded footpaths, got to the post office and put the parcel on an empty seat and sat next to it while I waited for my number to be called (it is a number system here in Italy, you take a number from the machine and wait …). There were three empty seats on the other side of me. Then some old bastard stands next to my parcel and asks if it was my parcel and demanded I move it so he could sit there because the seats are for people to sit on not for parcels. I just looked at him, let out a HUGE sigh, stood up, lifted up the box, put it on the seat I was sitting on and I moved along one and sat there, leaving the seat that the box had been on empty for his fat arse. Then I just looked at him and sighed again and looked away. Then he started banging on about the seats being for sitting on not for boxes blah blah blah. Two seconds later my number got called, I picked up the box, looked at him and then went to the counter. The post office woman was fabulous, she had sold me the box the night before so she knew exactly what I wanted to do, it took me maybe five minutes and I was finished. I turned around to leave and ‘fat arse’ was still sitting on the seat. I looked at him, gave him a filthy look, then laughed at him and walked out, meanwhile he was STILL banging on about chairs being for sitting on. I think he was partly blind because he obviously didn’t see the three empty seats on the other side of me. Or partly stupid or totally arsehole. I think the last one.

After I was promised the parcel would take 15 days to get delivered, I went in search of somewhere to get my nails done. The first place I found was booked out, no hope of getting nails done any time today. Then I went to the next place I had discovered thanks to the interweb, no problem getting my nails done, except the singorina didn’t understand Inglese, the signora behind the till could speak a little and none of them understood my Italian. So, charades entered into play. They thought I wanted one nail done. Then when they realized I wanted all of them done there was a little huffing and puffing but I think that was for the theatrics. Then the signorina doing my nails indicated that there was no way I was getting a French polish so what did I want??? I think she did an infill, I’m not totally sure, if she did it was done very very differently to how it is done at home, it was like a clear nail polish and did not smell, nothing like a stinky liquid with powder dipped into it. Someone told me once that was how gel is meant to be done, I think I had an infill with gel, not 100% sure, I will figure it out maybe when I get to Singapore, there will be nail bars aplenty there I’m thinking (racist).

(I just want to add in here that we are going past some hills that are covered in snow).

After having my nails done I went back to my room – I say I went back like it is in the same building, no, it was a half hour walk, this time in the rain AND hail) and stayed there for a couple of hours, starting to sort out crap to pack and stuff to leave at the church.

A break in the rain a couple of hours later and I walked to a church that I had seen a few days ago maybe half an hour away the opposite direction to the nails place. I left a bag of clothes there, a couple of jumpers, a panatone that the signora at the B & B gave me but I know I won’t eat, and some small change that I don’t use because the coins are small and when it comes time to pay for stuff aint nobody got time to wait for me to find the numbers on the coins so I know how much it is worth. I put them in a bag and took them to the church and left them on the steps. There are no such things as ‘op shops’ or second hand clothing shops here in Italy, I don’t know what people do with their clothes once they have finished with them. But my clothes that I wasn’t intending on taking to Venice were too good just to throw out so I figured that I have seen beggars sitting on church steps, and although no one was sitting at the church yesterday when I dropped off the bag, someone had left cardboard there where they had been sitting, so I figured someone would be back soon.

Then I had a yum pasta lunch and because it had finally stopped raining I went to Castel Sant’Angelo – the huge round building at the end of the Bridge of Angels. It had been built as a musoleum by Hadrian for himself and his immediate family – he married his stepmother after he killed his father so guessing she got a spot. The building has also been used as a jail, as a safe haven for Popes during some religious bullshittery that was going on centuries ago, and for other things too that I can’t think of right now.

I’m glad I went into the building, I’ve walked past it hundreds of times. There were many artifacts in the building, including frescoes on the walls of the rooms used by the Popes etc, but what caught my eye was the cannon balls made of marble that had been used to defend the building at times of invasion and other marble that had been used to decorate etc were all just laying around. Just like you see everywhere in Rome. I know now after speaking to people that many Italian people are very blasé about the ruins, some think they are absolute treasures – I’m guessing the more educated ones – some think they are a pain in the arse because it’s like when an aboriginal artifact is found, the property then gets taken over by government officials etc and the people who live where the artifact was found have not much say in what happens on their land after that. The guy I did my pasta making lesson with said his family treat things like treasures, they just don’t tell the officials that they have found something.

Castel Sant'Angelo

Balls made of marble used as cannon balls, they are as big as basketballs

The passageway to Hadriana's tomb

View of the Bridge of SIghs from Castel Sant'Angelo

Going past lots and lots of snow now – it is going to be brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr in Venice!

After Castel Sant’Angelo I went back to my room and had an early night, stuffed some more crap into my case ready for this morning. I asked the B & B lady to order me a taxi which arrived when it was supposed to, got to the station in time to see some mad woman standing in front of the army guards guarding the station, skulling a beer (9.10am), then she walked through the station and she pushed a young teenage girl who was just standing on her own, minding her own business, and she went flying! I stopped and made sure the young girl was okay, she was shaken up but kept telling me she was fine. The mad woman just waltzed on through the station. I saw polizia so went over to him “Scuza me per favore”. He ignored me and kept looking at his phone. “Scuza me per favore!!” and I was met with a sigh and a look that wanted to know what was sooooooooooooooo important I had to interrupt his phone time. I told him that the woman had pushed to girl, and he looked at me and said she pushed you? No!! La ragazza!! (No!! the young girl!!). He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his phone. Prick. I hope the mad old bitch pushes him next time.

Anyway, I’m now on the train, I have a great seat and my oversized (by European standards) suitcase is right beside me. We have just arrived in Florence, I have about another 2 and a half hours until I hit Venezia so plenty of time to watch snow capped mountains as they roll past.

So, the train arrives at Venice. There was an American family on the same carriage and they had big cases too – I thought, great, they will understand what I am going through! I asked the guy who was about 40 if he would mind helping me down the stairs with my case (A lovely man helped me on the train without me asking) and the American said “I have my own cases so I don’t think so” I just looked at him and he said ‘oh well, we’ll see” so I told him not to worry and I wish now I hadn’t asked him because I got my case down the four stairs bingo bango!!

I found my way to the nunnery quite easily, it helped that I have been along the pathway a million times before so I knew where to go. I dropped my case and took off looking for a SIM card, found the shop not far from here, the singorita helped me, all sorted. Then I went and had some lunch, emailed mum using the café’s wifi, then went through san marco, along the front and back again. By this time I had a message that my service was working, but it wasn’t showing on my phone so after going to the information desk to find out the best ticket to buy for the traghetto for a fortnight I went back to the SIM card shop and because I had used the café WIFI it mucked up my SIM card access so the chick had to reset everything and now I am waiting … but I don’t think it is working still, I will go back tomorrow and get her to help me again. At the moment I am sitting in the ‘common area’ of the nunnery. Apparently the wifi doesn’t work too well in the room, I didn’t bother trying, I will try later.

First sight I saw as I walked into San Marco

The tower that I am going to try to get the lift to the top if the lines are ever not too long

Bridge of SIghs

Late this afternoon

It’s not as freezing as I expected, it is probably as cold as Rome, Florence was colder. When I got off the train in Florence my face was stinging, not so here … yet, still plenty of time I spose.

I’ve been for pizza and will now go back to my room after I check facebook etc and unpack some stuff – there is no tv or anything in the room and because I probably cant get wifi access there will be no music or anything, just the sound of me breathing …

Some last photos of Rome -