欧洲散记 - 走失威尼斯

Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars, when they come to Venice, they both get lost.

 

Venice is pretty. Look at this photo, with so many waterways, ancient Rome buildings, good foods; it is a popular tourist destination. Ah, Venice, the beautiful water town. The famous city that sounds so romantic.

 

Wait, before stepping into the islands, are you sure you are ready? My mother-in-law, father-in-law, my sister-in-law and I took a trip to Europe last month.

Yes, I did my homework, I checked the maps, I read about the top 10 must see list in Venice, and I’ve got a credit card and some Euro (the currency used in Italy). Everything sounds good, we had a plan as to where to visit, from here to there.

 

Since Venice is not very big, we took the advice of friends to just spend one night and one day in Venice. After we booked and paid the B&B in Venice. The  manager said: You must pay 20 Euro for late check in fee. Ouch! He said he will meet us at 10:00pm. 

 

Ok. When our train arrived at Venice at 9:40pm, we waited outside of the train station. We waited in the cool breezy wind. 5 minutes, 10 minutes has passed, where is our lovely B&B manager? 

 
We heard of so many bad guy stories of Italy, we were getting worried and tired. And then a middled age guy approached us. He speaks English! He offered to help us, he said he has 10 minutes before he had to leave. He had a phone, he called the manager for us. The manager told us to cross the bridge and wait for him at McDonalds for him. God bless the helpful Mexican Restaurant owner.

 

At last, we met the manager and it took about 10 minutes walk until he led us to the apartment. The roads in Venice are all made of rocks. Walking on it alone would be fine, pulling your luggage to walk on these road would slow you down tremendously. When we arrived at the B&B, we realized, there is no elevator. It would have been ok for my sister-in-law and I to carry the luggage to walk those stairs, but it would definitely be a challenge for my mother-in-law. She has a heart condition. Walking up the stairs would be hard enough for her, not to mention walking up the stairs while carrying a luggage. Well, we just had to carry her luggage for her.

 

We’ve bought the ticket to our next destination at 6:25pm next day. How about leaving the luggage at the B&B until we leave for our train? Another 10 Euros please. What to do? We cannot tour the city with the luggage by our side. 

 

The next day, we woke up early to avoid the crowd. Walking out the door, I took a few photos to help us coming back to this place for our luggage. 

 

We bought the 24 hours hop-on hop-off water bus ticket to first get to the San Marco Plaza and the Church. Then we went other two islands to tour. Everything went well until we come back to the main Island and look for a restaurant.

 

We did not want to just eat at any restaurant. We wanted to find the restaurant that recommended by the B&B manager. We had the name of the restaurant and we have the address. You would think that would be enough. Unfortunately, No. 

 

Look at the map. This is the mainland map. Looks fine. It looks pretty straightforward. Look further, the island is separated by area, this whole area is called St. Marco, and this whole area is called St. John. And then, there is no street name, Ok, fair enough, just follow the building number then. Uh oh, the building number naming convention is not logical. 

 

Never mind, we would just ask people. You would think a tourist town like this means you can get by with English, surprise! Most of the local people don’t speak English. Good thing is, most of them are willing to help.

 

By the time we’ve found the restaurant, it is 4pm. We hardly had anything at breakfast, we did not have lunch and there is where we had our lunch. The food was good, but it was just too hard to find. 

 

After the meal, we decided to go to a museum to take a quick look and get back to the B&B for our luggage.

 

Sounds like a plan huh? No problem, we have time, it was only 4:50pm when we get out of the museum, and our train is at 6:25pm. 

 

Alright, just ask around, and find our way to the B&B. One and a half hour, we have time, right? 

 

So there goes, you ask one person, there told you go straight, cross two bridges, you are there. When you are there, you asked another person, No! No! No! Definitely not here, you need to turn around and turn right, go straight and then you are almost there. Ok, we found the number that is very close, keep going straight, we should find it. Go ask. Ok, this gentleman told us it is this way instead. Alright, don’t worry, we will get there. Oh, no, still not right. What about calling the B&B manager? Your phone battery is out? Alright, just keep looking. Oh wait, the number is getting smaller again. Definitely not right. 

 

Oh, you take turned on the phone now it has tiny battery can be used now. Quick, call the manager. We called the manager, asked a store owner to talk to him to tell him where we are. He told us to wait for him in front of the closest church. He met us there and it was 6 o’clock. 

 

We’ve got to run, we hurried to the B&B. Walked up 4 sets of stairs to retrieve our luggage, running down with our luggage, walk through all those rock roads, walk up and down a bridge and finally reached the train station. 

 

We saw the train, the train is leaving. I was waiting for them at the door. When we finally boarded the train, we were out of breath, and could hardly walk. The train left the station 3 minutes after we boarded. 

 

Phew…..

 

As my sister-in-law was walking alongside the B&B manager, she said: We were lost, we had been trying to look for the place for an hour. Our sense of direction is terrible. Have you read the book: Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars? He replied. I don’t need to read the book. I can tell you: Men have sense of direction, women got everything else.