Venice to Rome

Today our only real plan was to visit the Rialto Market. We had seen the market from the Vaporettos, but until today it was really a vegetable market, today they will have the fresh fish as well. Andre will visit a market whenever he has a chance. Today he wished we were at the apartment for one more night, so many beautiful fish, it would have been fun to cook for one night. We did see 2 chefs down at the market picking their fresh fish out, would have loved to try what they were making.

House renovation garbage has to be removed by boat

Veg & fruit at the Rialto market

Tons of choice for seafood

One of the oldest church in Venice, you can see the Railto Bridge on the right

We decided to walk to St. Marks Square one more time to say our goodbyes. We ran into the young man from Anchorage again, small world. He is heading out this afternoon as well for Prague. We gave him our email address and told him we have a couch if he ever wants to visit Eastern Canada.

Doge Palace we visited yesterday

We decided to walk some of the back streets to see if we could find some small canals.

Orbits on the side of a walkway.

We walked the small back streets home looking for little canals. Ran across a book store that has something to do with cats. Will need to look that up to see what it is about.

We stopped at a bakery and picked up some bread to go with the ham and cheese we already have at the apartment to make sandwiches for lunch along the way today.

We decided to take the Vaporetto to the train station, instead of walking like we did when we arrived here. There is only one bridge to cross when you are going to the Vaporetto station from our apartment, I know Andre appreciated that. Venice is definitely the city of bridges, you hardly turn a corner without having to cross a bridge. I would hate to not like stairs and have to travel around this city.

We are quite early when we got to the train station so Andre went exploring a little. We haven’t been on this side of the city at all since we arrived, and there are a couple of churches right by the station. Andre comes back and tells me one of the churches he had to pay 1.00 Euro and he got a candle to go down to visit the crypt. He said I should go and he would watch the luggage, no thanks. My walk is I go and get us both a gelato to go with our lunch that we eat on some steps on the Grand Canal in front of the train station. What a beautiful city, we have enjoyed it thoroughly.

Murano religious glass

Another beautiful church again

Train station on the right and Taxis.

Not for me

Me going to visit the crypt

Cheapest meal on the grand canal

Next we get on the 1PM train to Rome which will take us a little under 4 hours. It is a fast train that I booked months ago at a great price of 19.80 Euro for the 2 of us. For the fast trains the earlier you book them the less you pay, they have some great deals. The train ride is uneventful, the first part is pretty boring, worked on the blog, and then as we got closer to Rome we passed through wine country again which was really pretty. We were going 300 KM per hour at one poing

Hard to take good pictures at 300KM per hour

Arrived in Rome and we have decided to take a taxi to our apartment rather than the bus with all the luggage. The woman we are renting from had told us it would be around 15 Euro, so we were prepared for this, or so we thought. I had read about these black market taxis so I knew not to use them, but guess what we did. Anyway the older man was really nice, but he definitely did not take us the short way here. He convinced us that there was lots of traffic because we were arriving at 5PM and it would cost us 50 Euro by regular taxi, we are such suckers. Anyway we got in with him in this old car (insert stupid symbol here), we negotiated 25 Euro fee with him. Anyway long story short we got to our place safely, then he says it was 25 euro from the other train station not ours, then he said we had to pay for luggage too. Andre got out of the backseat, I was in the front, and I thought I gave him 25 Euro, but he showed me 10 Euro, I may have got the bills mixed up but the next day I thought he probably did a quick switch on me with this as well. Anyway as he was arguing with me for more money I am telling him to open the trunk for Andre to get our luggage out. He is getting really angry and then I hear, Wendy is that you. It is the lady that we are renting the apartment from, she said some words to him in Italian and off he went. So, not a great way to start out adventures in Rome, but a story for the blog, you are welcome.

Get settled in the apartment and we have to go exploring. First off we walk to the Pantheon, which is about 30 minutes from our apartment across the Tiber River. What an amazing first place to visit. Again we lucked out as they were getting to close for the night and we got to visit with not too many people. The Dome here is amazing, hard to believe it is 2000 years old. Many of the later church domes are copies of the dome in the Pantheon.

You see the top of St Peters Dome in the far back

Pantheon

Love the old walls

Largest dome in the world

Next we visit the Trevi Fountain. It is now nighttime now, still busy here, but not as crazy as we will see in the day. I was able to toss a coin in the fountain, so I will be back to Rome I guess.

Along the way to Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Now we are getting hungry, and there are 2 places not too far from here that I wanted to visit that have lots of restaurants at night so off we go to Campo de Fiori and Piazza Navona. We finally decided on a restaurant right in the square of Piazza Navona. Both of these streets are places where they have people out on the street trying to get you to come inside. Anyway decided on a place in Piazza Navona, sat down, ordered and then got up and left. People beside us were arguing with the waiter over the service charge on bill, there was no house wine for price we were told outside, so we left, too busy anyway. We then found a fantastic restaurant around the corner. We sat beside the wood burning fire with guy making pizza, fun to watch making pizzas and bruschetta. He makes 100 pizza a night on average, has done 200. He also spends his down time on his cell, LOL.

Fountain at Piazza Navona

We then start to walk home, make wrong turn, and see this huge thing we hadn’t seen on the way out tonight, how did we miss this. We then realize it is the Alter of the Fatherland, it is a huge mountain of white marble and up at Alter of Fatherland, we now also know we are nowhere near where we thought we were, and definitely not anywhere near our apartment.

We see around the corner there is a forum, so head there. This is one of 4 forums. Then I can see that the coliseum is not too far away. None of these things were on the list for tonight, all planned for later in the week, but a wrong turn can bring fantastic surprises, all lit up beautiful at night, and so few tourists around. Lots of armed guards. Looking forward to going back in daylight.

Largo di Torre Argentina

Largo di Torre Argentina

Alter of the Fatherland

The column is full of decoration depicting the emperor victorious war.

Ruins along the way to the Coliseum

Coliseum

City gate near the Coliseum

Another forum on the way home

A really long walk home, so ready for bed. Midnight when we got home, steps on my phone 32,000 for today, most ever that I have done in one day my phone says.