Breakfast is being served on the plane but I have my donut. I get a coffee and give my flight breakfast to Richard. It consists of yogurt, granola, and a fig bar. All too soon it looks like we are about to land.
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| Breakfast |
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| Coffee and my donut |
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| Getting ready to land in Venice |
Weather report is not good. Chilly and rainy. We get our luggage. Go through Customs & Immigration. But wait, all the stores are before C & I. I was supposed to look for my usual magnet, pin, coffee mug. Now I can't as you can't go back. Have to make the best of it. I locate a Bancomat Italia and get 300€. I then see the UNICA machines. I have my paperwork with a bar code. I scan this and get our 2 passes. Good for 7 days vaporetto. Cost 120€/$131.71 Because I purchased this more than 30 days out and because we are seniors I got a little discount.
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| 7 day passes |
Now I'm glad I didn't get the pricey private water taxi. Instead I booked a shared water taxi. Get Your Guide/Motoscafi $76.00 USD. There were around 8 others in the boat with us. Lots of luggage. All the others sat inside but I did pop up even though it was raining to get that iconic glimpse of Venice. To be honest I wasn't moved. Gosh, I hope this isn't an omen of how this trip is going to go. Pretty soon I can see the Rialto Bridge so I know we're getting to our hotel. We get off and our hotel is right there. Everything is wet. Lots of umbrellas. People not looking where they're going with these huge umbrellas waiting to poke someone's eye out. Not a good introduction to Venice. We have arrived earlier than check in time of 2:00 pm. I also need to get an e-sim for my phone. It's been recommended that I purchase a plan from Airalo. 5 gb for $14.50.
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Shared water taxi
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Grand Canal
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Grand Canal
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Rialto Bridge
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Hotel Rialto. Our room is not ready for us yet. Check in time is 2:00 pm. I booked this canal view room through hotels.com Cost for 6 night stay is 2379.60€/$2575.68. Breakfast is included in our stay. The check in process is very easy. Show passports, sign a paper. We are shown where breakfast is served. There is a room inside as well as tables outside. Hours are 7:00-10:30 am. I can't decide if we should do some sightseeing or just stay here in the reception area to wait until our room is ready. If it wasn't raining we'd do the sightseeing for sure but........... But then I'm told the room is ready so we can get in early and unpack. That's great. Our room in #415. The elevator takes us the the second floor. I don't understand why we don't take it to the 4th floor. I'm told all the 4th floor rooms are accessed with elevator at 2nd floor! What! Then we have to climb 2 flights of stairs! This is not good and not what I expected. If your room is on the 4th floor shouldn't the elevator go to that 4th floor for you? I should mention that most on Trip Advisor were not in favor of this hotel when I posted my choices. The other hotel was Hotel Saturnia and closer to St. Mark's Square. I was told this area by the Rialto Bridge would be too noisy, too crowded with tourists, and so on. Well, we picked this place mainly due to the fact of the vaporetto stop being steps away. So convenient and it would turn out to be the best choice for us. Never heard any noise with windows closed and even with them open the noise level wasn't horrific. Area was crowded but so were lots of other places. So happy with our choice.
 
 Reception
Reception area
The room itself is very nice and looks exactly like the pictures on the hotel's website. We have 2 windows that open and look directly at the Rialto Bridge and Grand Canal. There is a wardrobe for clothes. Mini fridge. TV. Desk. Chairs. Bathroom has hair dryer, toiletries. Tub/shower combo. It will do for the 6 nights of our stay. Not as spacious as we'd like but we know that hotel rooms in Europe tend to be on the small side.
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Next is for me to go get my Venetian mask. I've done research before arriving and know that the store I want to buy my mask is Ca' Macana. I've checked the website and know exactly which mask I want. I've e-mailed the store and have been told the mask I want will be available. Our first trip on the vaporetto! Can't remember which stop we got off at but it was either S. Toma or Ca Rezzonico. Dodging umbrellas we finally spot the store. It's a bit smaller than I thought it would be. I tell the guy what I'm looking for and he shows me a mask but it's not the one. So we go on line and I show him the one I want. He makes a call to the other shops. They have it and will hold it for me. I didn't realize there were other shops. The first place we come to as we're walking is not the shop. It's the workshop where classes are held. We continue on and finally we see it. It's large so this must be the main shop. Lots of masks. Feathers, sparkles. A delight for the senses. All masks hand made. Since 1984. Custom papier-mâché masks hand made from gesso molds by expert artisans. My mask is brought out. It's beautiful. I love it. It's signed. Bauta. Queen of masks. Dates back to 13th century. My mask-artist Federica. Mirror of the city. Doge's Palace, and gondolas and canals painted on the mask. Bauta Fede Venezia colors gold and beige/cream. Since I will be hanging this mask in my dining room along with others I've collected a hanging hook is placed on the mask. It's carefully wrapped in bubble wrap to protect it. (It made it home with no damage!) Cost 90€/$97.42.
 Store where I got my mask!
Mask I bought
Hard Rock shop is close to our hotel so that's my next stop. My stepdaughter collects the shot glasses and on every trip if there's a Hard Rock I get the shot glasses for her. I pick up 4-2 for her and 2 for me. I also spy a T shirt that I really like. Then the cashier says if I spend a bit more she can really discount the T shirt. So Richard picks out a hat which will end up costing us only a few dollars due to the discount I'm getting. I'm sure I can find someone to gift the hat with as my husband will never wear it. Maybe my stepdaughter's husband Bill. He loves everything we gift him! Cost Hard Rock merchandise 89.72€/$97.11.
It's time to think of dinner. That donut was a long time ago. I want to have pizza. At first I just assumed pizza would be an easy choice. It's Italy, right. Wrong. When I asked my question on Trip Advisor of best place for pizza in Venice I was surprised to be told that pizza is not a thing in Venice! Pasta, yes. Pizza, not so much. So I had to do my own research. I came up with a place that I think will fit the bill.
Ae Oche. We take the vaporetto to the stop? S. Toma? Can't remember and didn't write it down but we did pass the Frari Church while walking. Cute place. Seating inside and tables outside. Good mix of locals and tourists I think from what I'm seeing. I had made a reservation for 8:00 pm so no problem getting a nice table inside. Extensive menu but we're here for pizza. I spy our usual the margherita pizza listed for 6€. I think that's per slice but imagine my surprise when our server tells us that's the price for the whole pizza! Drinks-beer for Richard and my first aperol spritz. We also decide to order an appetizer. I tell Richard to get what he wants so he goes for the moscardini. For those of you wondering what that is-it's octopus with potatoes, small cherry tomatoes, and rocket salad. OK. Um. I did have a taste and while not a favorite I survived it. Cost for our first dinner in Venice is a whopping 37.50€/$40.59.
Slow meander back to the hotel. Cool being on the Grand Canal at night. We have a busy day tomorrow.
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Hi, nice post about your time in Venice. Great pictures and lovely writing. We spent 4 days in Venice, in November, 2022. I adore every meter of this unique city. The food was great. Strolling by the charming shops and witnessing the canals filled with gondolas made me feel like I was in a movie set! We stayed at Hotel Saturnia which was wonderful and right in the middle of all the action-beautiful stores all around. Need to return. Thank you.
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