After nearly 2 weeks of bustling around Italy, we would finally reach our last destination – the quintessential tourist stop of Venice. Our time actually spent in the city would end up being cut short as we experienced the only rainfall of the entire trip during our two day stay there. That said, we still made the most of our time and got to see some of the interesting parts of the city.

Day 12 and 13

As we traveled from Milan to Venice, we watched the skies slowly darken before rain began to streak down the windows as we pulled into Mestre station on the mainland of Venice. By the time we had checked in, the drizzle had become a heavy rainfall and we decided to take the afternoon to rest and hope for clear skies the next day.

The morning greeted us with overcast grey skies and the weather report forecasted rain for later in the afternoon. With this being our only day in Venice, we had to make the most of it, setting off early to catch a train over the water to the main centre of the city.

Once we arrived and got our bearings, the plan was to head towards the Rialto bridge and then onwards to the Saint Marks Basilica on the southern side. Making your way through Venice is no simple task, there are no main roads or markers that make navigating easy. Instead its more like a puzzle that weaves around and under buildings and you just have to head in a general direction and hope for the best. As we passed through the narrow streets, we saw many small restaurants, courtyards and shops while also coming across the many canals with awaiting gondolas for tourists. If it had been more sunny and perhaps less crowded, it would’ve been fun to just explore all the different paths trying to find hidden gems throughout the city.

As we reached the Rialto bridge, the weather finally caught up with us and the first sprinkles of rain began to fall as we began to cross the bridge. We continued out to Saint Marks Basilica and were confronted with a line of people waiting to enter, with that light sprinkle now becoming more heavy. The people in the plaza filtered out into the surrounding sheltered areas and suddenly we all crowded in under cover. With no break in the rain in sight, we decided to brave the weather and head out to look at the Grand Canal. The rain refused to let up, coming down heavy and now with strong winds making the canal waters choppy on the dock. After a quick look at the Bridge of Sighs, we called it a day and slowly made our way back through the streets to the train station to head back to the hotel. We spent afternoon keeping warm inside while also nursing a sudden illness that came over the BF during the night (emergency runs to the local supermarket for plain biscuits were in order!).

And with that, our time in Italy was at an end. Tomorrow we would spend the day traveling by bus and train to reach Vienna and start the second leg of our Eurotrip in Austria.