Milan to Venice, Day 4 - 17th February 2016

Yesterday's journey was very long, and tiring. We spent about 8 hours sitting on a train, and didn't arrive in Milan until evening, when we were dead tired and I was feeling quite ill with a cold. So we didn't really pay much attention to Milan. This morning we did. I can't say it was my favourite place ever, but it did well enough as a place to stopover. If you can ignore the filth on the ground and the smell of urine and cigarettes. What's travel without finding the places you don't like, too?

Luckily our train out to Venice left quite early in the morning, and we arrived at Venice's Santa Lucia station late morning. We immediately headed to the tourist booth to purchase our Venice Unica and Rolling Venice cards. The young lady who served us didn't seem happy in the slightest that I knew about the young adult Venice Unica and Rolling Venice deal, which we got for €28 each. The card gave us 3 days of free transport from the time of first use (and allowed us to take a suitcase on each, when normally suitcases are counted as a second person), 24 hours free wifi and discounts to various galleries, museums and other tourist attractions. Normal prices for the Venice Unica if you are not in the young adult or child bracket were alot more expensive at around €30 for only 2 days of public transport and no other benefits. One ticket on the ferry system was really overpriced at €7.50 per person, one way,so the Unica and Rolling Venice combination made financial sense to us.

After leaving the ticket office, we mapped out a route with our free wifi and hauled our bags through the crowded main street and over foot bridges for a good kilometre and a half. We found our hotel easily as it was just off the main street, which ran all the way from the train station.

From the moment we stepped into our Hotel, Palazzo Abadessa felt like home. When we left three days later, I missed the hotel. The staff were very friendly and welcoming, and our room was just spectacular. One of the reasons we had chosen to travel in low season was because our budget stretched to places that in summer, we couldn't dream of affording.

After settling in, we took a short wander down the street to find lunch. We found a quiet restaurant and ordered a ham and mushroom calzone each for lunch. As you can see, the calzone came out fresh from the oven really blown up, and neither one of us managed to finish our lunch. It was very delicious though, and only cost €6.50. 

We continued our wander through the main streets, winding our way to the touristy area near Ponte Di Rialto. The day got cooler as it progressed, so we stopped for large, thick italian hot chocolates at a chocolate shop. From the outside of the shop, we thought we were walking past a hardware store. What looked like dirty, rusted tools were displayed in the shop windows. It wasn't until we got closer that we realised that the tools were made entirely out of chocolate. What made them even better was that the parts moved. I bought a nut and bolt set for €2.50 to munch on, which actually threaded well enough that the parts could be separated and then twisted back together again. The chocolate was hands down the best dark chocolate I had ever tasted in my life. We tried to find the store again a day later, but could not seem to make our way back, and we had no idea what the name was.

After our delicious afternoon tea, we had a simple dinner at a restaurant only a street or two from our hotel.