There's No Place Like Venice

There are many cities in the world that tout themselves as "the Venice of"...Portugal, or France, or the Netherlands or China for instance. But there is only one Venice. The water here supports industry, commerce, transportation and celebration. Other cities might have canals, but they also have roads and cars. Venice does not. It's only the water. Venice is magical and mysterious. And it's also a workaday town, needing constant attention to survive.

My son B.J. and I arrived at the airport late one night. It was raining and somewhat windy. I hoped we could take the Alilaguna boat from the airport right to the stop near our lodging, the Zattere stop, on the outside of the Dorsoduro neighborhood where we'd be staying. We bought tickets for the Blue Line at a machine in the airport and made our way out to the boat dock. The Blue Line boat was pulling away just as we got there. The two guys at the dock shrugged their shoulders, in a very Italian way, and said the next boat for the Blue Line wouldn't be for another hour. We were already exhausted from our travel day! Another hour? So I went to the ticket window at the dock and asked if there might be another boat in the meantime that could take us to another stop somewhat near where we needed to be. The ticket agent knew what the guys on the dock had no understanding of, that the Orange Line boat, coming in 20 minutes, could get us to a stop within walking distance of our lodging. And, unbelievably, we could use our Blue Line tickets to take an Orange Line boat.

I had anticipated that taking a boat across the lagoon at night would be such a charming way to see the city for the first time. But we were below deck, with rain peppering the windows, so it wasn't all that charming. We got to the stop, some distance away from our hotel, and B.J. made good use of the mapping features on his phone. There were a handful of bridges to cross and several narrow streets and alleys to navigate before we found our place. Maybe we got there only a few minutes before the Blue Line boat would have made it to our stop, but it was our intro to getting around Venice.

The neighborhoods of Venice. We're staying in Dorsoduro

The place we're staying is the Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, a conference center and guest house. It's named for a modern-day saint who spent his life working with desperately poor people in Italy and several other countries. It met my goal of staying in convents or monasteries on this trip, though the staff at the desk were all lay people.

Our single rooms were small, and very plain, but we each had a private bathroom. We were staying on the second floor, which equates to the third floor in the US, and there was an elevator. There was an air-conditioner in each room, for the summer months, and a buffet breakfast was available from 7:30 to 9:30.

Luckily we'd eaten dinner on the plane, so didn't arrive starving. Sleep came easily.