lost in Venice

Wait... where are we???

We arrived at 6.30am after being on a plane for over 20 hours and travelling for almost 30. Our transfer to the hotel was interesting… We weren’t picked up at the airport. We got this sign instead (there was no delay in our flight).. 

We found our way there and passed a guy who said ‘taxi’. I said we had a transfer organised and waived the paper. So we walked over to wharf 15 - no one there… We waited 10 minutes then called the number on the transfer. $10 later through broken english they said the guy was there waiting. The same taxi guy came over 5 minutes later and took our paper, pretended to call someone (no answer) and then we got on his boat - docked at a different wharf. We were ok - shattered and grateful to be on the way to our hotel..

The taxi guy dropped us off in the middle of Venice somewhere. I don’t think he knew where he was. He pointed in the only direction you could go and then took off. 

So we spent the next 2 hours wandering around lost. We first found ourselves in St Mark's Square. After walking around in circles for about 30 minutes, we decided to get breakfast at a place with free wifi. Those signs are fantastic when you’re travelling and don’t want to pay the $15 per day international roaming fee plus data.

We found our hotel on Google maps then set off again. Stuart’s radar was broken though - I think it’s because we’re on the other side of the world. I normally go in the opposite direction of the right way in Australia… Here though - I’m spot on and Stuart is broken.

Venice is a beautiful place to be lost. Especially early in the morning when all the tourists are still sleeping

After another 20 minutes, a kind gentlemen who couldn’t speak much English asked if we needed help - he’d seen us walk around for the past hour and wanted to help. He called a friend and gave us directions to where we needed to go.

We went over a few bridges and around more corners to another square. We spent another 45 minutes later walking around in circles - because we were in the right place but couldn't get in! The hotel was so hidden that the street wasn’t on the map we had.. We finally found it and walked up to the reception to a wonderful team of people at the gorgeous Hotel Al Codega.