Florence to Venice in a day

It’s one of those days when we wake and have nothing planned. Except lunch, which will be at one of the amazing steak restaurants we have walked past and thought ‘must go there’. It’s check-out day so we pack our suitcases once more, mine is getting a bit tight so I use the extendable zip to let it out, and store them at the hotel while we head out for some more entertainment in Florence.

We stumble upon another gallery and go in. It is rather provocatively titled, and proves to be provocative in content. I’ll just share a few photos of the art, but most of it is not suitable for this blog. It’s great to see something completely different to the renaissance and religious art, but the nature of the work in this exhibition leaves me feeling a bit gloomy.

To perk up, there’s always fashion. Gucci is right there and we’re in Italy after all so we go in for a look. The prices are mind blowing (£850 for a pair of sneakers, for example) and the staff follow us around like hawks. But it’s only fair to dream while on vacation.

Lunch is spectacular. A T-bone steak, 1600g, of top quality beef from Finland. The waiter is really cute and really knows his steak. It arrives on a hot plate and he shows us how to eat it with the olive oil and black salt crystals. Here, Phil and I have a soulful conversation, resulting in a few tears, but we have learned our lesson when eating before a train journey and have set an alarm.

We think we’ve done well to time it to the station for our 3.30pm train, but after getting our bags and ordering a taxi, somehow we have just three minutes to board the train. Again, we run through the platforms and fall into the first carriage as the conductor blows the whistle. We only just make it. Instead of trawling through all the carriages to our seats we take the first available and, turns out, we are in business class. Saying nothing, and on a full stomach and comfy seat, I quickly fall asleep.

Waking near Venice at a stop called Padua, more people get on. I give my seat up for a man with a baby in a pushchair, and it’s not long before we arrive at our stop. Phillippa has done it again, booking accommodation just metres from our station, so we walk with thousands of others through the canals and over bridges to our destination. 

It’s the most beautiful hotel. Phil has a real talent finding these. We are greeted with a drink in the ‘library’ and a mad selection of bite sized foods (aperetivo Italiano), as it’s dinner time when we arrive. We get talking to an American couple who are travelling through Italy. Their take on the political situation in the US is predictable and sobering. They are house hunting in Italy as a result.

We head out for the night and it’s full of tourists. Too full. We find our way to St Mark’s square (Piazza San Marco) just before nightfall. The square transforms in the dark before our eyes. We aren’t going into another church, but the queue is around the block. We find probably the coolest place in Venice to stop for a while and enjoy the atmosphere. We stick to the main routes for the walk back, but there’s no need to fear as there are still hundreds of tourists around at 10pm.

To finish the night, we put on our Venetian masks and take some silly photos. Enjoy.