Bologna to Venice - October 4

Today we depart Bologna for Venice. We are scheduled to be picked up by motor coach at 08:00, but the coach cannot come to the hotel due to the surrounding streets being closed for the Feast of San Petronio, Bologna's patron saint. It's only a short walk to where we can reach the coach, but a bag drag across the cobblestone streets is not appealing. Nicola to the rescue. Using one of the Pizzoli vans to carry the luggage, the walk to the coach is much better.
Gianni, our driver, made it to Mestre, where our hotel was located, in just over two hours. The folks at the Hotel Ai Pini were very accommodating and got us into our rooms relatively quickly given that we arrived so far in advance of normal check in time. They even sent us down to their restaurant for complimentary coffees while we waited. Lunch at the hotel was delicious, consisting of quiche with porcini , risotto with asparagus and tiramisu for dessert.

Hotel Ai Pini

While we were enjoying lunch the front desk prepared our vaporetto and bus passes. These allowed us to use the city buses and the water taxis (vaporettos) to get to and around Venice. But for the initial trip into Venice I wanted to ensure we all stayed together, so ...
Loading into a couple of Mercedes minivans we were transported to Roma, our gateway to Venice, where we met our tour guide, Giuliana. She took us on a lengthy walking tour ending up at Piazza San Marco, where we visited Saint Mark's Cathedral and the Doge's Palace.

Tour guide Giuliana

Venice "Street Scene"

The Palace was actually the seat of government. One of its most interesting aspects was the numerous drop boxes where "whistle blowers" of the past could leaving incriminating evidence of official corruption.

Complaints Hotline - Just Slip Your Note in the Slot

After the tour terminated I sent everyone off exploring (for many, this meant shopping) on their own, armed with their bus/vaporetto passes and instructions on how to get back to the hotel. OMG - what have I done?! Will I ever see them all again? After some wandering about and dinner most of us somehow ended up converging on the Rialto Bridge vaporetto stop at exactly the same time!! Thank you, Lord!!!
Taking the vaporetto back to Piazzale Roma we got on the bus back towards the hotel, but didn't really know where to get off. OK, gotta turn data roaming back on long enough to load the local map in my iPhone. Then I could use the GPS location services to see where we are relative to the hotel. Once back at the hotel it's off to bed because we have an early bus ride back to Venice in the morning to catch the vaporetto to Murano island before we leave for Milan.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad