We left Rome at 6.30am for the train to Venice. Reached Venice at 11.30am and kept our luggage in the luggage room. It cost us and arm and a leg. Seriously. We had to pay €18 just to keep our luggage for 7 hours. Usually, we only had to pay €7 to keep our luggage in the locker for a whole day. Outside the station, I spotted a shop selling sweets and sandwiches. Greedy me bought a sweet to try. Almond nougat and chocolate rolled up to resemble a swiss roll. It was devilishly sweet…in a good way. :)
Bought a boat day pass for €13 (I think) to get around Venice. We stopped at Piazza St. Marco (St. Mark’s Square) first and looked around. Piazza St. Marco is the only “Piazza” in Venice. All the other squares are given the name “Campo”. Things in Venice were soooooo expensive. They probably think us tourists print money or grow them on trees. And it’s very easy to get confused and maybe even lost in Venice. The pathways are similar with tons of alleys to walk through.
We searched for a restaurant called Vino Vino, recommended in our travel guidebook. It was very difficult to find it and we nearly gave up. We went round and round San Marco looking for it when it was actually in a hidden corner. I found it when a waiter from Vino Vino caught me staring hungrily at their menu on the window. He waved for me to come in and showed me the front of the restaurant. That was how we found Vino Vino…after getting lost for almost an hour. :S
We both ordered the pasta of the day (€11 each). My red sauce pasta was good; sourish with a hint of sweetness paired with crunchy bacon bits. It went very well with parmesan cheese. rif’s creamy vegetable pasta was I think; an acquired taste. Slightly bitter presumably from the vegetables and coated with delectable sweet cream sauce. I liked mine better. I believe rif did too. :)
I couldn’t resist ordering the vegetable soup (€6) so ten minutes into our meal, I caved. It was utterly delicious! The best of the lot. I liked this one better than the one I had in Florence. The broth was very rich in flavour with generous amount of vegetable chunks and topped with lavish sprinkling of parmesan cheese. It went very well with the bread basket. The bill came up to €33 for the both of us. It wasn’t cheap but the experience was worth every cent.
After lunch, we went to the Rialto Bridge. The view from the bridge was beautiful. My only gripe was the amount people crowding around you trying to enjoy the same view. Had to be very alert of pick-pockets. 
We found the Venetians extremely rude especially the vendors. During our time there, very few of them were nice. They were the rudest bunch of people among all the Europeans I’ve met. It’s a shame they behaved that way; I would have enjoyed Venice much more if they were more accommodating.
Since things were so expensive and the vendors were mean, we didn’t buy much souvenirs. Got rif’s sister a hand-painted Venetian mask while I bought myself a laced fan. They were expensive but so pretty looking. We left Venice at 8.30pm for our night train to Vienna, Austria.
