Bye to Venice (by way of Verona) Hello to Milan

Morning - Venice - Day 5

This morning I got myself ready to leave Venice for Milan. I am going to miss Lido very much and its happy people and the positive energy you see everywhere around here. I took a long walk along the beach and along some of the beautiful, Villa lined side streets and just a block from my hotel I found the hotel we stayed at 11 years ago when on my first trip to Venice. It was a tour with my mom, my aunt Sheila, my aunt's sister Patty and her friend Sheila and my mom's friend Janice. That was a tour through Tuscany ending in Rome. The hotel it turns out is only a block from my hotel this time, so funny. It's called Biasutti Hotel, a Best Western although I'm not sure that's what it was called when we were there in 2001, my aunt may remember as I'm just not sure now.  I took a picture of my hotel now as well since I had put a picture of the hotel Melody and I stayed at 3 years ago and now I have all my Venice residences depicted in this blog.

I took the long boat ride over to the train station just because and took a few more shots of the city as we passed by. I feel sad to leave but so grateful for having had this time here to just wander, swim and take in all that makes this city so great.

The train took me to Verona (home of Romeo and Juliet) in just over 2 hours. It was a quick and quiet trip and so inexpensive 7.5 euros. Now the train is not fancy by any means and apparently they are not reliable time wise at all so I guess they don't over charge you so you don't complain too much. But I found out from a women on the train I took later from Verona to Milan that if a train in Italy arrives at the station you are waiting more than 30 minutes late you are entitled to a full refund. She said you just go to this special office at the stop you get off and you show them your ticket and fill out a form and they hand you over the money. I asked if she had done it before and she smiled and said many, many times. She began this conversation after apologizing that our train was so late and the general lateness of all Italian trains.

Verona train station is nothing to look at but a Canadian couple I had met on the boat the night before had told me that they weren't impressed when they stopped off in Verona until they walked about 10 minutes to the old town and that's where the beauty is. So I checked my suitcase at the baggage room (which by the way was filled to the brim with luggage) and a policeman pointed me in the direction of the old town (which really if I had just followed the crowed I would have found it on my own) and off I went. It's a quick walk down a main avenue that looks like any main avenue in any major Italian city but then you go through these large, very old arches and come in to a piazza that is stunning and at its center is a mini coliseum. It's really quite beautiful and despite the hordes and hoards of people it was a charming place. When I say hoards, I really do mean hoards. There were so many people through this little town you would have imagined you were amongst the crowds in Times Square on New Year's Eve. Craziness!  There apparently where several festivals going on as well as a concert in the Grande Theatre (that being the old coliseum.) There were so many people sitting all around the Grande Theatre as the music from the concert going on inside was fed through strategically placed speakers so the crowd could enjoy the sounds of what was happening on stage behind these ancient walls. Something about this theatre reminded me of Madison Square Garden. I think it was the way the gates that go along the bottom are numbered similarly to MSG and the roundness probably has a lot to do with it as well.  That same women on the train told me that this is a Roman town just like Brescia where she's from and what that means is that it's a town with ancient Roman ruins. I've included several pictures depicting the ruins of Verona.



So, as you can imagine, I came to see Juliet’s house (or Julietta’s Casa as the say here.) I only got a few moments there as the crowds were totally out of control and not to mention it's filthy. They have written all over the passage way that leads to the courtyard where the balcony is and there is gum all over the walls with random messy notes stuck to some of the gum. It's not at all like that movie "Letters to Juliet."  So I walked some more and then headed back to the station to get my suitcase and board the 2 hour train to Milan.

The train was packed as well and we had to stand up the whole way. I did meet that women I mentioned who told me about late trains and Roman city's as well as two women from Taiwan who had just been in Venice as well and were going to Milan to catch a plane to Bulgaria for vacation. One of the women had just finished her MBA in England and the other women, her friend, flew over to spend a month traveling Europe with her to celebrate. That 2nd woman flew from Taipei to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Jordan, Jordan to Rome and then Rome to Venice. Wow, that's a lot to celebrate with a friend. She said it took her about 22 hours.  They are going from hostel to hostel and said it's been lots of fun so far which is great and they love the Italians so far and had only great things to say about their experience and I agree everyone has been so nice so far and even the crowded passengers on this train didn't really complain at all. And even though it was almost 30 minutes late arriving there was barely an utterance of dissatisfaction. Although I imagine it's because they're all so used to it by now.

So here in Milan my hotel was across the street from the station so very easy and the two women from Taiwan had about a 20 minute walk to their hostel but they were so cheerful and happy to do it. It was so nice to have the three of them to talk to because time on the train flew by.