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We were doing great and running ahead of schedule in the morning for the first time in a while. But it turned out to be a “no-driving” day in Rome and they shut down enough roads that Aunt Nancy couldn’t pick us up. We had to break the emergency glass and wake up Sean and Sarah, who very graciously offered to drive us to the train station. We made it with 10 minutes to spare!
The views from the train of the Italian countryside were beautiful—just what Sarah had always pictured. This trip was also a huge win for trains after the whole Egypt overnight train saga. We even were able to get some lunch snacks from a vending machine on board (and it had WiFi).
This train dropped us off at the Venice Mestre station, and we had to catch a shorter train to the Santa Lucia station.
From there, it was onto a bus-like ferry that took us all the way to the Rialto Bridge, where our hotel was.
We were extremely lucky and booked the cutest boutique hotel with only 6 rooms called Palazzo Bembo. According to wikipedia, it was originally built in the 15th century, and although the interior was remodeled several times over the centuries. The floors also slanted multiple degrees, so it was kind of trippy walking around on it (that’s Venice baby!). Our room overlooked one of the canals, and we immediately looked down to see a gondola passing by (awesome).
We needed some food after a long train, so we took our concierge’s advice and crossed the bridge. Sarah noticed some people eating a delicious looking sandwich, and they pointed us to a shop where we ordered.
It turned out to be amazing, and we just had to get a bottle of wine. We sat by the water with our sandwiches and wine and enjoyed the sunset. It doesn’t get much more romantic than that!
We took our wine up to the bridge and looked out over the water, definitely blocking the view for maybe a little too long. People didn’t seem to mind too much, luckily.
We were tired from the early wake up, so we took a quick nap in the room before going out on a walk.
Everyone says to just get lost in Venice, so that’s exactly what we did. We walked over to San Marco Square, which was pretty empty at night, and just took in the views of the architecture before heading over to the piers. The water was gorgeous and empty in the moonlight.
From there, we wandered around and enjoyed the scenery. Sarah loved all the Venetian trinkets in all the windows and flourishes on the architecture. She felt like she was in one of the stories she used to read as a kid.
There was something eerie, but also calming about Venice at night. On one corner, the only sounds would be water lapping onto the sides of the canal. Then we would turn down a corridor and come across a lively bar scene. Only to have the bar sounds fade behind us as we continued on our walk. With the tall brick buildings towering over us in the narrow corridors, we couldn’t help but feel like we were being watched, and we wondered what was behind these ancient city doors. If magic and fairytales are real, some of it resides in Venice.
After feeling we had been lost for a sufficient amount of time, we eventually started making our way towards the main canal and found our hotel. It was pretty late, but luckily we were able to grab dinner at this lovely spot around the corner.
Eventually, we made it back to our hotel and got ready for bed. We spent a little time booking our Paris hotel (fingers crossed we got a good one) and then went to sleep. We had a lot more Venice to enjoy the next day!
We even loved the hotel lobby of the Palazzo Bembo. 5/5 recommend!
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