To Venice

We both had a restless night's sleep, Lindy because she had a neck ache and a slight headache, me because of a sore throat. Woke late (for us), at just after 7 but considering the time difference, it was 6 a.m. in England.

Breakfast was below ground level, in a lovely room that had an arched ceiling (as many rooms in Italy do). We had a choice of bread to toast and various jams and hazelnut spread, crispbread, cheese, ham, cereal, fruit (fresh water melon or tinned mixed), juice, coffee or tea. We were surrounded by a variety of languages, French, Italian, English, German or Dutch, and Chinese. 

After breakfast, we returned to our room to pack and rest before checking out at 11 a.m. Our train doesn't leave until 3:50 so we asked if we could sit in the hotel lounge for an hour. Lovely tiles in patterns on the floor, columns and statues, with very elegant lounge chairs. At midday, we left to walk to the station to find our train for Venice. With a couple of hours to fill, we found a relatively quiet spot to sit and read. I left Lindy with our bags and went for a walk. Bought some water and throat lozenges and saw where we would have to wait for our train departure platform number to be advised.

We found our train departure platform with no problems and our carriage and seats. The train left on time. We left our luggage at the end of the train but saw that many people wheeled theirs along and left it near their seats. Toilets behind us not in service, the one at the other end of the carriage had no paper.

Lindy and I both read our books, me between nose blowing. Cold and throat worse. The train was late into Venice, and we faced a walk along unfamiliar paths in the dark luckily we had taken a screen shot of the route when we had the internet in Rome. Lindy did a good job guiding us to Albergo Casa Peron, with only one slight wrong turn. We finally booked in at almost 9 p.m. and discovered that we were in a double bed. We're told that beds could be separated next day. Dropped our bags in our room, and went next door for dinner (The Dolphin), where I had pizza and a glass of the house red (very nice) and Lindy lasagne.

Our room is on the first floor and looks out over the 'street'. We left the windows and shutters open for fresh air but had to shut them for the noise. Double glazing meant most of the sound was muffled.