Day 1 in Italy

Joe dropped us off at John Wayne airport at 6:00am, California time.



Our first layover was in Chicago at O'Hare airport. This airport has the nicest restrooms I have yet seen at an airport. The seats have a plastic covering on them. Wave your hand in front of a sensor, and the plastic shifts, so the plastic used by theprevious occupant goes away and is replaced by new plastic. Very hygienic! Compare to the other airports on this trip, where they don't even have paper seat covers for the toilets, and you can appreciate Chicago's dedication to hygiene.


Although Orbitz allowed us to select our seats ahead of time, Lufthansa apparently chooses to randomly assign seats. People all over the planes who were traveling together had to swap seats with other people, causing great confusion! Lufthansa did this on the 8 hour 10 minute flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, and again on the 1 hour 20 minute flight from Frankfurt to Venice.



We arrived in Venice about 1pm local time.Sky is overcast, with some light drizzle falling, and it is pretty cold. The airline pilot gave the temperature in centigrade and I forgot the number already.Fortunately we planned ahead and brought appropriate clothes. Scarf, hat, gloves, coat, all appropriate for the weather that greeted us when we arrived in Italy.



We boarded the water taxi at 1:50, at the cost of 15 euros per person. It is very crowded. It should take 90 minutes to reach Zattere where our hotel is. We are staying at Pensione Accademia.



So far, there is nothing to see. From the boat, we see wooden markers rising from the water, showing the boat pilot where to drive the water taxi. There is enough overcast and haze that we can only see water beyond that.

We just passed a couple of buildings on some kind of atoll, but I could not tell what they were.



We have reached the area with land to our left and right, bridges overhead as the water taxi winds it's way slowly through the city.There are a lot of boats in the water. It makes sense that they are a staple of transportation here in Venice!The concierge at the hotel told me that there are no cars in Venice. I have seen no roads for cars to drive on so I will believe him.

In some respects, Venice is what you expect it to look like based on seeing movies like Italian Job. However, I think they clean up the city for movies like that ... Paint buildings, cover graffiti, pick up trash.Just like any other city, Venice has its share of dirt, graffiti, yard trash.


What may make Venice different is that houses don't have yards, front or back, so people's business seems to be out in the open for everyone to see. But you get the idea that the city has been like this for centuries, The city is crowded, laundry hangs out for all to see, and when you walk, it is with a building on one side of you, and water on the other.

By the time we arrived at the hotel, we were exhausted from the flight and fell down on the bed to snooze. I wandered across a bridge and got a Prosciutto pizza (ham, for you Americans), ate half, and brought the other half back for Kristin. Now we're going to sleep some more and prepare to go on a tour of Venice in the morning.