Firenze Stazione, Pisa & Venice

 So while we made the decision not to go to Florence, we did in fact have to pass through the train station twice – spending at least 5 hours there in total.  Does that qualify as visiting Florence?

We spent the night in Pisa, even though most people make it in a day trip from Florence just to see the Leaning Tower.  The Italian government have spent a fortune reinforcing it to make sure it doesn’t topple.  Not surprising given the number of tourists there.  I don’t think Pisa has much else to offer but the crowds at the Tower were outrageous. 

The most hysterical thing was everyone having their photos taken in various poses of holding the Tower up or knocking it down.  The Tower itself is actually tucked in behind a cathedral and the only way you can get in position for such pictures is to go onto the large expance of grass surrounding the whole complex.  Only problem is standing on the grass is illegal.  Periodically, the police come out and blow whistles and yell at everyone while they shoo hundreds off the grass.  As soon as they’ve gone, everyone goes back again..

The train from Florence goes straight to Venice and Venezia Stazione should be a tourist attraction in itself.  Inside it looks like any other Italian train station (mainly great queues of people trying to buy tickets from 2 ticket windows open out of 10 – sorry bit of sarcasm there!).  However, you walk through the main exit doors and right there in front of you is the Grand Canal.  It’s quite surreal, like walking into a theme park.

Note for fellow travellers – the guide books will tell you you can walk from the station to St Mark’s Square in about 15-20 minutes.  They’re lying.  Especially not straight off the train, with packs and kids.  One thing you’ll learn about Venice is that it’s a meandering labrynth of bridges, alleyways and piazzas that all look the same (and the signs are well.. typical of Italy – all over the place!).  You will have to take the water bus which has astronomical fares.  Kids are NOT discounted.  Budget accordingly!

We arrived at the station late in the afternoon and a storm was hovering on the horizon.  Typically, by the time we got around to Saint Mark’s on the water bus, it was starting to spit.  All the passengers started pouring off the boat and by the time we made our way through the crowds, it was bucketing down.

It kept right on raining  with no sign of letting up, so after about 10 minutes we decided to cover our packs as best we could with rain covers and try and find the hostel.  It had been steamy hot all day so it was quite a relief to go out into the rain, although the raindrops were so big and pelting down that they actually hurt!

We did eventually find the hostel (note to people who own accommodation – please put a map or at least give instructions that make sense, so we might have half a chance of finding you!)  We were, of course, absolutely soaked and then had to pull everything out of everywhere and try to set it out to dry.

In our guide book it comments that Venice is not really a real city anymore, it’s more like a tourist park.  That is possibly true. There doesn’t seem to be any other commerce going on there other than that to cater to tourists. 

It is unlike anywhere else in the world, so I guess it’s worth fighting the crowds and the ridiculous prices just to wander through those famous alleyways.