Arrivederci Venezia, Buongiorno Firenze

We're heading out of Venice today, on the train to Florence. I need to summarize a bit. On this trip, I'm not revisiting some of the things I've already seen. B.J. doesn't seem to mind, even though this is his first time here. We didn't tour the Doges' Palace. I'd seen it before, and enjoyed the Secret Itineraries Tour, but elected not to do it again. We saw the Bridge of Sighs from the street, and that was fine. There are other museums in Venice we didn't visit, but we felt like we were busy enough with what we saw and did.

The Bridge of Sighs, a prisoner's last view of their beloved Venice, walking from the courthouse to the prison

Remember the panhandler I mentioned on our first day in town? We saw him every single day. He'd approach us, and when he realized he knew us, he wouldn't ask for money. We all three laughed about it happening every day. The funny part, in our view, was that he was wearing a different outfit every day and carrying a different tote bag or backpack. We figured he probably wasn't destitute, after all.

We never had a chance to try a traghetto during our visit. One of the gals on our pub crawl discovered them and loved the idea of getting a ride across the Grand Canal, in a gondola, for 2 euros, when there wasn't a bridge nearby. The local people enjoy the convenience, and pay only 70 cents, but we never saw one in our wanderings.

So, it's our last day here, sadly. We had one last breakfast in the dining room, with the other oldsters, and checked out.

Since we'd ridden the vaporetto around the island once, we knew just how to get to the train station from our Zattere stop. Nicely, there were no bridges to cross to get to the stop. It was barely a half-block away from our front door. Our 48-hour vaporetto passes still worked, and we felt like we'd gotten our money's worth from them.

We hadn't booked train tickets ahead, unfortunately, so when we purchased them at the station our only option was premium seats, at 69 euros each, and not together. Oh well, it was only a 2-hour trip to Florence. The time passed quickly for me, sitting with 2 Americans. They were both retired educators, and since I spent my whole career working for school districts we had lots to talk about. They were fans of Rick Steves' books and TV shows, and they got great deals on their plane tickets using points and miles. This couple checked all the boxes for me! B.J. sat with some Italians and had a quiet ride. Well, they weren't quiet, but they didn't talk to him. The fun part of these premium seats was that a porter came around and handed out bottled water, a packet of crackers and a packet of cookies. 

We took a cab from the train station in Florence to our lodging. It wasn't that far away, as we discovered, but the cobblestones and crazy traffic would have made for a difficult walk.

This time we're staying at an actual convent, with nuns bustling around. It's called Sanctuary Firenze, and it's operated by Suore Oblate dell'Assunzione (Sisters of the Oblate). Rick Steves' book says it's east of the Duomo, and not far away! I've talked to a few people over the years who have stayed here and really liked it.

Peek-a-boo view of the Duomo from our street

Our single rooms are small and plain but have modern bathrooms and air conditioners. For a little over 60 euros per night, per room, it was an amazing deal.

The view of our courtyard garden from my window

We had a nice dinner at Boccadama, listed in Rick Steves' guidebook as a good restaurant in our neighborhood. By showing his guidebook, we could get a free dessert of vin santo (sweet dessert wine) and biscotti. I forgot to bring his book, but luckily, I had the map that came with it, with his company's name on it. I showed it to our waitress, and she knew what to do.