Transtion to Venice

Yesterday, we had an interview in Ferrara at 10, and then a 12'30 train to Venezia--the ride is only 90 minutes. . .and such a transition, between Emiglia Romana and the Veneto! Our landlord, Luigi, took us to the train station--molto gentile.

When we got to Venice, we had the Herculean task of obtain the IMOB or Carta Venezia pass---I described the economics of this in a previous post

I couldn't think of a way to get to the ACTV office in Piazzale Roma without us both being there, which entailed dragging the bags--(In retrospect, I wish I had thought of leaving them at baggage deposit and backtracking back to the train station after getting our passes). The bridge that goes between the train station and Piazzale Roma (the last place you can have a car in Venice) is very high, very long. I had Greg's 22" but he was dragging my 24". We took our time, but it was still exhausting.

When we got to the ACTV office (the transit authority of Venice and the region), there was a shaky moment when she told us the IMOB was only for residents--I told her we had an apartment here, but she still shook me off---finally, I said "Carta Venezia?" and that did the trick--we got the expected forms and handed over our passport sized photos and passport copies. A bit of a funny story about the passport photos--I had some with us (there's an iPhone app that takes the appropriate sized photo :) but when I looked at the information about the Venice pass, it seemed they were too big). So, we stopped in the photo booth in the train station and got new ones. Then, all the woman behind the counter at the ACTV office did was scan them! Oh well. )

So, armed with our new IMOB (it does say IMOB on it, after all) passes, we set off for the #51 vaporetto (the 'express'--only stops at the train station (see the note about what we should have done with our bags), the Rialto, the Accademia and St. Zacchariah (our stop) before heading to the Lido. I called the contact for the apartment from the vaporetto and she was there, waiting for us. It was a relief to have some lead us there, but then we had the task of taking the bags over three largish bridges, then turn left into the labyrinth of Venice--2 more smallish bridges and we were at our apartment. There are three keys necessary to get to it--a key through the gate, a key through the door of the apartment building, then the apartment itself.

The apartment is much smaller than the one in Ferrara, but probably more typical and certainly fine for us. There's an entry way, a small kitchen to the right, then a combo dining/living room, a bedroom and bath. Michaela had left all sorts of nice touches: fruit, milk , water, butter, coffee, sugar and a bottle of Prosecco! We appreciate all the staples, because even though we are here for two weeks, it's challenging to use up even small quantities of those sorts of things.

We did set off for the grocery store as soon as we unpacked (and checked out the wireless connection!) We had to exit the gate, turn left, then right then left, then left, then right and then walk over a small bridge over a canal, and there was the grocery store! (tucked into an ancient building). All sorts of choices, a cheese counter, a butcher, some fruit and vegetables. Michaela showed us another on the map, further away but cheaper that we may check out today, but this will work for most things. We also bought an igniter for the stove (the one that was in the apartment was out of fuel)--It's completely gas, no electric ignition and we had quite an adventure getting that to work. We went downstairs, where Michaela works in a glassworks shop with her mother and father--they figured it out and brought it up to us.

Our dinner was a motley of gorgonzola stuff gnocchi and wurst and salad. It didn't matter--it tasted good and we were happy to have it. Today, we hope to meet up with our friend Roberta who works at the Conservatory here--She served as translator when we led the USC tour a couple of years ago and then invited us to celebrate the Feast of the Redentore with her when we came back for the ISME in Bologna.

The weather is very damp (funny about that) and very foggy (nebbioso). Tomorrow is supposed to be sunnier and reach 57.