Bled bulletin: Venice and Rome

Monday, 10th September

After spending a week relaxing in Bled having joined Gemma and Richard for my 5 months away it was time to explore further afield. Our journey to Italy began with a short car trip to Bled Jezero station. A quaint railway station so quiet you can walk across the tracks quite safely! Our train arrived on time and we were off on a pretty journey to Nova Gorica through the mountains. Just under 2 hours later we arrived at the border town. Our instructions said it was a 100 metre walk across the square to cross the border. There was no obvious square but we wandered down the road and found the border between Slovenia and Italy and all of the sudden there we were in Italy. It felt quite strange just being able to wander between the two countries. The next step was a bus to Gorizia Centrale station. We found a shop selling bus tickets and then the number 1 bus arrived and we hopped on (well struggled on with our luggage!) Final train journey from Gorizia Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia and another couple of hours and we were in Venice. Short walk (navigated by Gemma!) and we found our hotel. Hotel Dalla Mora was quite nice - compact maybe the word but fine for a few nights. Then it was time to explore Venice - starting off with ......you've guessed it a beer and lunch! We had consulted Trip Advisor and Lonely Planet before we set off to find good places to eat and we headed towards a recommended sandwich shop (Bacaretto). The rolls there were excellent value and very tasty, as was the wine at 60 cents a glass. Richard tried one and it was very good. Gemma and I stuck to beer - bit more expensive!! We explored some more and enjoyed walking alongside the canals. We walked a long way (several miles I think!) including visiting the Rialto bridge. Thanks to Gemma's map reading skills we didn't get lost.

Rialto Bridge

After all this walking we needed some sustenance in the form of liquid refreshment so we found a bar. We ordered our beers but unfortunately there were no menus with any prices available on the tables. We now think this is deliberate so you don't just walk away!! Having got used to cheap beer in Slovenia (just over 2 euros for 500ml), the bill was a bit of a shock - 13 euros for 2 large and 1 small beer!! We later found out that that was relatively cheap for Venice and soon got used to paying 5 euros per beer! We even saw it up 7.5 euros! Shocking - probably good for our livers though!

Tired after the travelling and walking we went to a resturant next door to our hotel for dinner. Food was quite nice especially the sea bass filled ravioli but very expensive!

We had a list of sights to see and on Tuesday we began with an enjoyable trip on a vaporetto. This is a water bus effectively and enabled us to travel along the grand canal and see the sights from the water without the extortionate cost of a gondala. This took us all the way to St Marks Square. In fact looking at how busy the grand canal was I was glad not to be in a gondala - bit choppy for my liking!

On the vaporetto

Once we got to St. Marks Square the queuing began! It was very hot by this point and we queued to get into the Basilica and had a look round (refused to pay extra to see the treasure!!) and then we queued to go up the bell tower. Unfortunately there is only a lift so a very long queue (saved our legs I guess!) but the view was good from the top.

Richard and Gemma at the top of the bell tower

Bridge of Sighs

Doges Palace is worth a visit (shorter queue than other basilica or bell tower) but we were all a little weary by the end partly due to the heat. We walked over the Bridge of Sighs inside and took some more pictures from outside.

This left us with just the Peggy Guggenheim Collection which Gemma wanted to see. This gave me time for shopping - love a bit of tourist tat shopping and Richard went for a walk. This was followed by a pizza slice for lunch and an enjoyable hour or two sampling a couple of glasses of wine!

On Thursday it was time to move on. Richard started his grand plan with a train to Milan and Gemma and I travelled to Rome. After an enjoyable train journey watching people with ridiculously large suitcases struggle to stow them away and blocking the aisles completely we arrived in Rome Termini. Then our next stage of queuing began as our return train tickets did not have seat reservations and having seen the chaos on the train on the way down we did not fancy not having a seat. Despite my previous conversations with Rail Europe who assured me we did not need seat reservations it turns out that we did. An hour after joining the queue we finally got tickets sorted for our return journey at some expense! Stroppy email going to Rail Europe shortly!!

Whilst we were in the station a monsoon had started outside so we were glad to get to the apartment! Small studio appartment but well situated. Then it was time to explore our new surroundings. I had the best pizza I have ever had for dinner that evening! Beer is still as expensive here but we are used to it now!

View from the Cupola

One of the halls in the Vatican Museum

St Peters Basilica was impressive. I was stunned by its size - enormous and so ornately decorated. We joined yet another queue to walk up to the Cupola - all 551 steps. Felt every one especially the very small steps with sloping walls - was very glad to get out of them! Enjoyed the view at the top all the more as we had walked there! We went to the Vatican Museum in the afternoon expecting more queues but 3.20pm is the time to go (tip for anyone visiting!) - no queue at all - straight in. We walked through many beautiful rooms but the main attraction was the sistene chapel. They make you walk the whole length of the museum to get there! The signs in the chapel clearly say no pictures but half the population obviously can't read as they were clicking away. Gemma had fun ticking people off!!

On Saturday Richard joined us for the day and we visited the Colloseum and Foro Romana. Lots more queuing. Handy hint to anyone visiting - go to the Foro Romano first as less queues and your ticket gets you into both!! As you can see from the pictures the sun came out :-)

Foro Romano

We endeavoured to use the local buses to get to the spanish steps and eventually we did. Buses do not always go exactly the route you expect according to the map though! However we made it to Piazza di Spagna, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and Piazza Navonna. There seemed to be an abundance of McDonalds in Rome at virtually every tourist attraction (we did manage to resist!). I was impressed by the sheer size of the Trevi Fountain - makes the fountains in London seem small! The Pantheon is another impressive building which probably wouldn't still exist today had it not been taken over and used as a church.