Arriving in Venice

We rise early in Rome and catch the EuroStar train to Venice. Here’s a photo for you train buffs (Hi there, Lee).


The Eurostar from Rome to Venice

The kids made friends with a 12-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy from Austin, Texas who were also on their way to Venice. They played cards part of the time, but it sounds like they spent most of their time terrorizing the staff in the bar car. They were actually kicked out. Twice.




Being good and playing cards on the train.


Venice is amazing and improbable, with people’s front doors floating an inch or two above the salt-water canals. The streets are for feet – no bicycles even – and range from wide avenues lined with deep sidewalk cafes to alleys where you can touch the buildings on both sides without stretching.

To get around, you take the city bus – err – I mean boat – called the Vaporetto. We catch the #1 to our hotel, which is a grand antique of a place, in a 4th floor walkup called the Pensione Guerrato.


That's the Vaparetto -- public transportation Venice-Style.e

The sisters spend the ride cooking up ideas for a graphic novel.


Riding the boat is a blast, and Kobi is glued to the railing, watching the city. Maggie falls in love with a sculpture outside one of the many art museums


Public art on the canal in Venice.



We spent most of the afternoon at the Laundromat, listening to the chatter of the unrelenting stream of high-school and college-age Americans on package tours. There are lots of Italian tourists too (not in the Laundromat) but if there are locals, we haven’t seen any yet.

After a late-afternoon siesta, we ride the canal boat to St. Mark’s square and eat pizza and pasta next to the wateront. We end the evening wandering around St. Mark’s square, where hundreds of people mingle in the dark surrounded by grand buildings and dueling outdoor orchestras. Kobi dances around and begs to play in the water that is seeping up through the drains in the square (said to be Venice’s early warning system for flooding).



Maggie with Gondola.

Kobi in Pigeon Heaven -- St. Mark's Square.