July 4, 2010

• Venezia

  Following on from the wallet saga, I had arranged with the lost property people to pick it up on Saturday, but from Ca' Farsetti, the Palazzo del Comune... closed on Saturdays but manned nonetheless, so she told me just to ring the bell and it would be there. The only problem was that I had to get there in the morning, and it's about 3 hours from Trento to Venice (on regional trains - can't afford to splash out on the more expensive ones!!). So I had decided to get the train at 6.05am, originally thinking I could get the first bus (5.11am) to get to the station. That plan fell through when I found out that the bus didn't go on Saturdays. The parents had very kindly said they would run me down there - I protested a lot and suggested other ways which were shot down by them (taxi - too expensive; walking - too far and dangerous; cycling - too hilly) so in the end just gave in and let the dad take me. We left at 5.40am.... 

  Perhaps it was too early in the morning, I don't know, but somehow I managed to be on the wrong train, for the first time in my life! Basically it said Platform 1 for the train to Padova (I had to change at Bassano). I don't know whether I was reading the wrong line on the departures board or what, but anyway, I got on the train, and then it didn't leave, and at about 6.09am I looked out of the window and saw that it now said the train was going to Verona. I have convinced myself that previously it said it was going to Padova and then changed, but I may well have been hallucinating through tiredness . Anyway, not the end of the world because I could change in Verona anyway but of course had bought the cheaper ticket which wasn't valid on that route. I walked up and down the train looking for the conductor, who I couldn't find, so in the end just gave up and decided I would explain if he came. He didn't, luckily. I hadn't checked early connections at Verona, so had no idea whether I was going to end up arriving at the same time as I would have done by getting a later train, which would have been ironic! But luckily when I got to Verona I saw that there was a train to Venice at 7.36am (6 minutes later). So I went to a ticket machine as I thought I'd have to buy a new ticket for that leg. Luckily (how many times have I said luckily?!) the machine wasn't accepting cash, so I ended up going to a ticket counter instead, and explained what had happened to the man and said I assumed I needed a new one as this one wasn't valid. He said that it would be ok, I should just explain to the controller what had happened, before he said anything, and he would either make me pay the difference or not bother. So that was good. I went to get on the train... there was another Verona-Venice train from earlier in the morning that had been delayed, so this train was packed. At Vicenza we were told that the train wasn't going any further due to problems on the line, and we had to wait for further announcements. Eventually they told us to move to another train on another platform which would leave first. That also took about 30 minutes to leave, and was absolutely boiling, but eventually it did go and I got to Venice about 20 minutes later than I would have with the slow train. The bonus of having problems on the trains and them being packed is that no ticket controller is ever going to bother going up and down to check tickets, so I didn't have to explain my invalid ticket at all! 

  Arrived in Venice, already 35 degrees and absolutely boiling, I headed to the Rialto bridge (Ca' Farsetti is just beside it on the canal bank). Got there and as expected the gate was closed and I had to ring the bell. Eventually a man came over to see what I wanted, and I explained and he let me in straight away, found the package, got me to sign the documents and check the contents. Amazingly absolutely EVERYTHING (except the money, obviously) was in it. It tells me who found it, where it was found and when... 14th June on a bridge in Ca' Pesaro. I lost it on February 6th. That's a LONG time that it was just sitting somewhere. It wasn't damaged or anything (I'm using it again now!) so it's quite amazing really. Very happy to be reunited with all the things I'd forgotten about - obviously I've replaced all the cards, so got duplicates of all of them (except my Exeter student card which I'm very happy to have back, and my EHIC card which you can't replace until you're back in the UK)...also has valid Brescia bus tickets I'd forgotten about, passport photos, other photos, loads of random membership cards...I'm very happy!!

  Afterwards I spent the rest of the day wandering around Venice sweltering, along with thousands of other tourists! It was pretty extreme heat. I made the observation that when it's THAT hot there are two things that are distinctly lacking in Venice: water fountains and places to sit in the shade. On the whole of my travels (walking for about 5 hours solidly) I saw 3 drinking fountains. Each of which was surrounded by masses of people drenching themselves, drinking masses, doing anything to cool off.... and shade was so hard to come by that many of the tourists had umbrellas up to protect themselves. I'm quite glad that I don't seem to have burned, even though I wasn't sure I had put enough suncream on all day! 

  This was my 6th visit to Venice and I hadn't managed to research "new" things I could do, so I ended up just wandering around lots. I also went up the Campanile which I hadn't done since I was 13 and enjoyed the views.... after coming back down, this Korean girl asked if I could take some photos of her which I did. Then she asked me if I was travelling like she was, and I said no. Then she dug into her bag and brought out this little teddy keyring which she said she wanted to give me! How very random... I accepted as thought it would probably be rude not to, although I really hadn't done anything to deserve it! She clearly wanted to be my friend as she was on her own though because she asked me where I was going next....this is probably mean but I didn't really want to be tied to going places with someone else, so I said I had to go back to the station soon to get my train, even though I still had a couple of hours! So we went separate ways and I carried on exploring, until eventually I did head back to the station and get my train, this time the right one. The one which takes 3.5 hours to get to Trento and goes really really really slowly, stopping everywhere... I thought it was NEVER going to end! Luckily it did and afterwards I met Lindsay and we went to Pedavena for dinner, then back home to the family!

  Later today we are going to the lake with them which will be nice.... there was a big storm last night so although it's still hot, it does feel a bit fresher which is a relief!! 

  A dopo!  

   

  • 5:18 am
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