We landed at Treviso Airport after a 2-hour flight from London Stansted Airport. After collecting my bags at the baggage claim, I walked over to the ATVO ticket center located near the airport entrance and purchased a bus ticket for €10 (roundtrip) to take me from the Treviso Airport to the city of Mestre (the first bus stop). The bus ride was roughly 45-50 minutes from the airport to Mestre. From the Mestre ATVO bus stop, I walked about 50 yards to the Mestre train station. I purchased a ticket for €1 to take me all the way into Venice (Venezia). The train trip was about 10 minutes long before reaching its destination at the Santa Lucia train station in Venice. From there, I paid €6 and some change for a water taxi to take me to St Mark's Square (Piazza Di San Marco) where my hotel was located.
After checking in and settling in a bit in my room, I took off to look around. It was already dark but the lights from the various brand name stores, restaurants, and souvenir shops provided the ambient lighting through most of the walkways there for safe walking. It was really cold so I didn't venture too far out. I did manage to walk around St Mark's Square and can barely make out some of the structures in the darkness. I stopped in one of the shops to pick up something to eat and drink, and headed back to the room since it started to get colder. I went to bed after awhile. Geez! The bed was not comfortable at all. Not like the bed I slept in at the hotel in Egypt (see my Cairo, Egypt, blog/review).
I got up early, washed up, got ready, and headed downstairs for the complimentary breakfast. Afterwards, I started exploring around taking pictures. It was still cold but not like it was the night before. The sun was out and I can feel the warmth hitting my face. It was a great day to take pictures. I took lots of pictures of the Basilica, the Doge's Palace, the clock tower, the Procuratie, and the Correr Museum there at St Mark's Square. Afterwards, I wondered about the long strip of shops and market area filled with vendors selling an assortment of items (leather belts, shoes, purses, a variety of apparel, jewelry, toys, kitchenware, electronics, fruits, vegetables, fresh seafood, etc.). I saw a Switzerland RADO wrist watch I fell in love with but I thought €1200 was a bit out of my budget.
I can afford it but I'd rather buy a large plasma screen TV for that price instead...LOL! I must say there were crowds of people (locals and tourists alike) pushing through. Later, I tried looking for the place I needed to be for my tour. I temporarily lost my bearings but got back on course only to find out the tour already started and it was too late for me to catch up with the group. I got bummed out the rest of the day. I missed the tour I payed for. !#$%&* I decided to walk off this state of "bumness" (is this a word? Now it is, I just made it up) all over Venice. I must have walked a good 4 hours. There were a few interesting sites I took pics of, and a lot of not so interesting areas.
My legs and feet were telling me to sit down somewhere and rest before they force me to fall down from fatigue. I eventually did sit down...at a restaurant to have something to eat and enjoy a couple glasses of wine. After that small break it was off to the shopping area to pick a few souvenirs for my friends which didn't take long to do. I continued to wonder about taking pictures of the different canals in the area and folks riding in gondolas. Geez! €80-€100 for a gondola ride? Per hour?! Well, I would definitely look awkward riding in a gondola by myself with the gondolier dude steering the gondola around without a female companion with me...LOL! Yep, I'll just stick to taking pictures! The day ended late back in the hotel.
Rialto Bridge
I left the next day back for the airport. I was standing around by the boarding gate until they made the announcement that our flight was about to board. Crowds of people got up and surrounded the gate with no sense of order. This one lady said, "Excuse me, excuse me" (then tapped me on my shoulder). Are you in line?" I wanted to be a smart-ass about it and say, "No, I just like visiting airport gate terminals just to stand around to pass the time, you dumb!#$%.", but instead, I said, "Yes, I am." Then she ask if I was going to London Stansted Airport. Dammit, this is the only gate opened in this small, freakin' airport going to Stansted. I simply shook my head and rolled my eyes.
...and it had to be me out of everybody else that she had to ask these ridiculous questions to...LOL! My impression with some of the locals wasn't that great. Well maybe except for the cute Filipina girl that worked at the hotel restaurant that I had a very long and interesting conversation with that....oops, I'm drifting here. I guess because Venice is so saturated with tourists, most of the locals have to always be tolerant when it comes to the high demands and requests most "high-maintenanced" tourists inundate them with. The questions I asked can be reasonably answered with a simple yes or a no. I can figure out the rest. They seem to get on their soap box, and say something like.
.."Well we don't have that here...we cannot do this here...not like your country...it's not like it here...Welcome to Italy"...in a sort of sarcastic tone hiding behind that stamped-on smile of theirs while waving their hands and arms around...LOL! Hell, the way things are done in their country (or any country for that matter) doesn't bother me in the slightest. I have no problem adapting. I simply wanted a Yes or No answer, and I'm out. I never had a problem like this visiting Rome. I enjoyed Venice only in terms of the picture-taking and checking the out the wonderful sites there....and speaking to that pretty Filipina girl at the hotel...LOL!
Hotel Panada
Well about the only thing going for this hotel is that it's a stone's throw away from the Piazza di San Marco place. Since I was single traveler, I naturally was given this particular room (see photos). The room in general looked nice with it's special theme. If you look closely at the wallpaper, you can see where it's peeling at the edges a little. The room smells like cigarette smoke...even more so in the evening. I think the cigarette smoke permeates the room from another room or rooms occupied by smokers. The bed was not comfortable at all. I found out that the cushiony chair was a sleeper chair so I folded out the bed the second night I was there and slept better on it than I did the actual bed. The bathroom was clean but a little small for the toilet, bidet, and sink that were situated so closely to each other. The TV is wall-mounted up very high and situated to where you can only lay on the bed to comfortably look up to view it. There is no mini bar in the room. There is a wardrobe containing a small safe to lock your valuables should you require it. Breakfast is free and starts at 7am every morning. They have bread, cold-cuts, yogurt, cereal, and orange juice. They can serve you coffee or cappucino if you like. The lobby and the front desk is of modest size. The lobby and front desk has this sewer smell. When you go up either via elevator or stairs, it smells like cigarette smoke...so you have your choice of smells to tolerate. This was a place to rest my head and leave my bags while touring the area so it was adequate for me. I can see where they can improve on some stuff though. Customer service varies on who's working at the front desk.
