Ireland & Italy 2019

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Slán Éirann....

Ciao Italia!

Our first time on Ryanair...only about $60Cdn each for a seat on this plane to Venice...and only the seat....jetway ramp is evidently not included, good thing it wasn't blowing a gale at the time...

I had done my homework about Ryanair's strict baggage guidelines and when we weighed our bags at the automatic bag check-in machine, we were 1.2 kgs over, so 11 more euros.  A machine, no chance to sweet-talk a staff member out of paying - with my natural charm, naturally.

Computers even do the seat assignment, so we couldn't sit together unless we paid for advanced seat selection.  Which in my mind meant no need to print a boarding pass since a boarding pass shows seat assignments right?  So I figured there would be self-serve printing kiosks just like we see here in Canada.  If not, no problem, we'd just go to the friendly Ryanair counter and they would print it.

What I failed to learn during my research is that Ryanair charges 55 euros (about $75Cdn) to print a boarding pass.  Yep, $75.  And no self-serve kiosks, except for the ones for baggage.  So when I waltzed over to the Ryanair counter to say we needed boarding passes, it was a let's say, cool reception.  No actually, it was downright hostile.  Apparently you can use your phone for a boarding pass.  Terrific, except we have one phone between us (yes dinosaurs that we are), entering at different doors, and we aren't sitting together, so how would that work eh.  Oh yes, my boarding pass is on my wife's phone, yes, 33 rows way down there past all those people trying hard to get their luggage to fit in the overhead bins!

Well somehow we didn't have to pay the $75 fee - I didn't even know about that till later, I can imagine how I would have reacted to an additional $150 charge! I'm sure I would have gone viral and you'd all know about it well before reading this.

And like in Canada, food and beverage is extra on board.  Oh, and you can buy lottery tickets on board too!  10 scratch and win tickets for 10 euros or something.  I saw no one buy.  Travel can be such an eye-opening experience eh.

But here we are in Venice.  Venice!  Well not quite.  Ryanair flies to Treviso Airport, about an hour's bus ride from Venice.  6 euros only, no boarding pass required, no excess baggage fees, and a front row seat!

And then, there it is, that magical city, the Queen of the Adriatic, the City of Canals, The Floating City, La Serenissima.....Venice...

Note the 3 large cruise ships on the right, there were actually 4 in port the next day..."La Serenissima???"

The last time we would see motor vehicles for a couple of days....Piazzale Roma...end of the line for buses, taxis, and cars.  Notice the jackets being worn by everyone.

We arrived around sunset and it was about 17C.  Not what we expected at all.  We were booked into the Hotel Arlecchino, not far from Piazzale Roma so we wouldn't have to walk over too many bridges with our luggage.  But somewhat mesmerized perhaps by the sight of a Venetian canal (the Chiesa di San Simeon Piccolo in the background)....

we get lost - and this time we had even taken the road well-travelled!...but after re-crossing a bridge or two, there it is...notice the traditional "barber-shop" pole indicating a Gondola stop.

we had booked a canal-view room and it turned out to be this one, Room 806, on the top floor....

with this view...on the Rio Novo off the Grand Canal, with 3 bridges over the intersection at another canal...

Not a large room but we feel very lucky to be here...

So onto a Vaporetto to enjoy Venice at night....we take the first vaporetto that comes by, #2....

which takes us counter-clockwise along the Grand Canal...with our first look at St. Mark's Basilica...

It's a cold ride in the open-air stern of the vaporetto but it's our first few moments in Venice so we stick with it...the vaporetto makes a stop on the other side of San Marco, called Zaccaria.  Rather than got off and walk, we figure we'll stay on-board and get off at the stop right next to San Marco as it continues back towards where we embarked at Piazzale Roma.  So off we go...right past San Marco, turns out Vaporetto #2 does not stop at San Marco...

Oh well, there's always the next day....so on we go...wherever you look, it seems, an impressive water-side structure...

We encounter Vaporetto #1, going clockwise along the Grand Canal, and the one that stops at San Marco....right by the famous Rialto Bridge, where even in the dark, cold, and wind, tourists fill the bridge....

By the time the Vaporetto returned us to Piazzale Roma, we were cold and tired.  So our first meal in Venice would be take-out pizza!  From here, the Bar da Mattia nearby,  not Dominos, to eat back in our warm room.  

photo courtesy Google Streetview...

but it can't be a Guinness now that we are in Italy...

and that would end our first day ever in Italia.