Specifically, Laura and Jimmy are catching a flight to Nice, France followed by trains to Bordeaux before we meet again in Paris. Nick and I are headed to Barcelona for Act II of this adventure.

With just 2.5 hours before our flight departed, Nick and I decided to take a harrowing yet scenic 45-minute ride on a water taxi through the Grand Canal. This was followed by a speedy bus to the Marco Polo airport, and we arrived with much more time than we expected so we were each able to get not one but two delicious prosciutto and buffalo milk mozzarella paninis with sun dried tomatoes at the airport deli. The food here is so good, and I have a feeling that trend will thankfully continue in Barcelona.

Following a walk through of the Great Church of St. Mark, we headed to a small shop near the Rialto district where the owner of our B&B said we could purchase the bath towels she provided for us. I jumped on this opportunity because 1) these are the best towels I’ve ever used and 2) I arrived with half empty backpacks to bring stuff exactly like this home. We found “TSL” after asking no more than five people and I made my towel purchase.

By this time we were a bit wet from the rain so we headed back to the B&B to regroup, get dried off, and ask the owner for a lunch recommendation. This lead us to the pizzeria Corte dell’ Orso at the end of a dark and deserted ally – a very good local choice! To make things even better, the rain had stopped for the day a few hours earlier than Nick’s estimate.

The British Air magazine on the flights over recommended we visit a small art gallery called Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni where we were definitely off the beaten path. With our fill of many depictions of a pointy-eared dragon getting slain, we headed back to the Santa Maria Formosa square where we met a gondolier named Roberto who seemed friendly and spoke excellent English – we had found our captain!

No tour of Venice would be complete without a gondola ride. The industry is regulated by the 425 gondoliers (red and blue banded hats don’t signify anything more than flair) and rides before 6pm cost €80 for a 40 minute tour of the area near where you pick up the boat. We wanted a tour of the small canal ways, and that was delivered in spades. Excellent! The only thing that could’ve made it better was if we had hired a singer/accordion combo that we later saw a couple cruising through the canals with.

Next up was a “Vivaldi el’ Opera” concert, which was actually quite good. Jimmy even caught a glimpse of a tear in the eye of the tenor singer as he looked into the light – the woman soprano didn’t seem quite as into it.

Nick and I wrapped up the day at a small bar down the street from our B&B enjoying the Californian Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap. A good end to a great and very picturesque day in Venice.

Upon meeting Jimmy at the B&B, he took us to the plaza Campo Santa Maria Formosa where we met Laura. We then wandered a few blocks and ended up at Al Mascaron for a filling and very tasty dinner.

The evening found us enjoying prosecco and limoncello on the patio of our B&B – it’s good to be traveling with good friends and seeing new places once again.

Included in this recap of past trips are Eurotrip III (Germany and Spain), a trip to Turkey (Istanbul and Ankara), a ski holiday in France, a road trip through the American West, and Eurotrip IV (Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Italy). Stay tuned!

As a testament to the difficulty of our plan, the friendly ticket lady in the Florence train station laughed at the schedule I handed her and called over her colleagues to look at it. Yes, even a seasoned railway employee thought we were nuts. We must’ve earned her respect, though, since she was more than eager to help us work out the details of the mandatory train reservations.

Swiss trains are notorious for their timeliness, literally departing and arriving within seconds of their scheduled times. Therefore, we were somewhat concerned when we pulled into the Milan train station with only ten minutes to get to some unknown platform and on the train to Switzerland. Needless to say, the instant the train stopped we had no choice but to run!

Dodging in and out of the crowd with full packs, we made our way to the front of the surprisingly long train on platform 18. We soon learned that our Swiss train was on platform 3, which was the complete opposite side of the station. Another run ensued, and we boarded just minutes before the conductor blew his whistle. We were off to Switzerland.

With Ernesto’s help, we planned a five hour visit of the Cinque Terre combining trains and hiking. John and I started in Riomaggiore, and to make a long story short, trains were delayed, hiking trails were closed, and we were soon “stuck” for two hours in the second smallest village of Manarola.

I’m sad to say we had become “checklist” travelers – we were focussed on getting out of Manarola and continuing down the Cinque Terre in order to see as much as possible in our five hours. Once we realized this, we were finally able to open our eyes and see the amazing scenery surrounding us. A valuable lesson learned, the two hours we spent hiking around Manarola were some of the best spent in the Cinque Terre.

After Manarola, we visited Vernazza and Monterosso before it was time to master public transportation.

Obligatory tourist photos in hand, it was time to run to catch our train to the Cinque Terre!

Unfortunately, it was also one of the five days a year it rains. And when it rains, it poors – luckily for us the streets were flooded with street vendors selling umbrellas for the bargain price of €3.

Our journey through Italy would last 3 days, with stops in Rome, Florence, Pisa, La Spezia, the Cinque Terre, and the Milan train station.

The photos below are from the flight to Rome and my first night there.