Varenna to Venice - Day 6

We took the train from Varenna to Venice and enjoyed the company of another American couple from Seattle. It's fun comparing travel notes and learning about others' experiences abroad.

Venice was a surreal experience from the moment we walked out of the train station and boarded the vaporetto on the Grand Canal. It was one of those moments where I almost had to pinch myself to be sure I wasn't just dreaming. Vaporettos are the city buses of Venice and run most efficiently. It was easy to learn how to use them and we found our hotel just a few minutes from the vaporetto stop.

We're staying in the San Barnaba Hotel in the Dorsoduro area of the city. The hotel is in a 15th century palazzo than has been in the same family since it was built. It was restored and turned into a hotel between 2000 and 2009. I had the opportunity to meet the current owner who showed me some of the original furniture they found during the restoration along with telling me a little about the family.

You can see the narrow lane it is on in this photo. I'm also going to show you a photo of the water taxi dock on the canal in the back of the hotel.

While we were waiting for Werner and Susan to arrive, I had a conversation with Roberto who seemed to be the manager. He spoke English but I tried to speak some of the Italian I had learned. I was doing pretty well until I invited him to dinner (in Italian) and asked him "Da me e da le?" Your place or mine. He just started laughing and said he would have to check with his partner! So on my first attempt at picking up a guy in Italy, the guy turned out to be gay!

After Werner and Susan arrived we spent some time exploring our neighborhood before having dinner. Here are just a few pix of what we saw. More tomorrow!