We left the apartment early, hoping to avoid crowds on the vaporetto. Sunday morning the Grand Canal was almost empty. We took one last look at our little neighborhood.
We did some people watching at the train station... the trains from nearby cities brought an almost constant flow of people into the station. Surprisingly for a Sunday, there were a large number of school groups.
About 10 minutes before departure, they finally posted a track number for our train. We were in Coach 1, so we had the farthest to go. Ours was a sleek-looking, high-speed train. I didn't get a picture of it, but it's similar to the one you can see here.
We stopped three times -- in Miestre (the industrial suburb of Venice), Padua and Bologna. Miestre, we discovered is home to Fincateri Shipyards... we saw a new Holland America liner being built. Venice to Bologna is mostly flat, across farmlands. Bologna to Florence is mostly black, because it is a series of tunnels.
We got in around 1:30 and it took about 20 minutes to get out of the train station and roll our bags the four blocks to the apartment. This one is on the third floor of the building -- luckily it has a working elevator. You could describe it as Italian IKEA in style, with a few oriental touches thrown in for extra measure. The kitchen, although tight, is better equipped than the last one - with a freezer we finally have ice for our gin & tonics, and with real wine glasses, we can enjoy our $1.69/liter box wine.
There's a couple of problems with the place... the apt next door is undergoing renovations. Today they put holes through the wall into our apt and knocked plaster off the wall. The IKEA style couch has to be the world's most uncomfortable! And, the Duomo is one block away, so the bells of the campanile echo off the walls of our street. At least they don't go off every hour. So far we've heard 0745, 0845, 1645, 1730, 1845, and 1900 (none of those times match up with their mass schedule, so we're not sure why those times).
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