THE ROAD TO VENICE
Arsenale stop on Colonna,
Garibaldi street
Venice..
June 8 23
10.15 pm
I did all the last minute tasks like getting Euros in cash, and downloading apps for airlines and a hard copy of the boarding passes and the coach. There was also shopping for the right clothes, very thin for the weight of the luggage and then there is the rain forecast for Verona so where is the multi coloured umbrella?
It was such a long day and so much has happened. I woke up in Reading and get a drive to the coach for Heathrow, which I caught with two minutes to spare. I had just the person to see me off on a trip. Why am I doing this, you say to yourself? Because I was asked.
Also, I would be a fool to turn down a trip to Venice, wouldn’t I? But I really liked my home that I am trying to turn into to a homely cottage. It has rather a lot of character though.
So I leave the South West, a rural area and board the crowded Heathrow coach until I reach the right airport and airline and meet up with my travelling companion.
Flying is the same as ever, it’s been so many years since I went anywhere. Except now there is an issue with luggage, how big it is and how many you may take. We all sit very close together, I don’t remember that and there isn’t that romance anymore is there. But maybe that’s a Canadian thing.
So we made our flight after queueing in snake lines and I just smiled, what can you say? That it didn’t use to be like this? Nobody wants to hear that, but it’s true, it was lovely travelling, the freedom, the romance.
The flight was lovely, perfect weather except for a little turbulence as we neared Italy, the mystery over luggage and what you can and can’t take with you. I took my keyboard. I have to be able to write. I have my pen and paper too.
Here in Italy I have no idea what’s going on. It’s rather nice, bit like being a kid again because my opinion is not asked, not deemed important which it isn’t because I don’t understand any of the adult happenings.
So I made it to Stansted airport with all the hundreds of people going away because it is June and we are in a holiday mood and it strikes me that the English love to travel, and chase the sun.
Having landed in Venice we take the water taxi where my companion meets a retired English vicar and his wife from Camborne who spend month at a time here in Venice, just because they like it. What an interesting type. They have all the Brunetti books by Julia…and come several times a year and follow the Brunetti walk that has been created for those who follow the books.
NEXT: Getting Around in Venice.
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