Holy hell. What a long day. Besides our arrival and departure days, this was our longest travel day. We left Lamezia Terme (after some difficulty) at 10am this morning and arrived in Venice at about 8:30pm. There was one stop in Rome, just long enough to grab a bite for the train.

I was nervous right out of the gate when the GPS seemingly went bonkers while driving from Catanzaro Lido to Lamezia. In case you were thinking that routes were logical and well marked, you’re wrong and they aren’t. We got everything worked out and the car returned, but immediately ran into our largest language barrier yet: cab driver at Lamezia airport. I had no clue. He had no clue. We laughed. I showed him my phone and all was good.

Let’s be honest, there’s not a lot to be said about 10 hours of high speed rail travel. It was amazing people watching. I could run down my viewing playlist (included a Showtime documentary on Edelman and episodes of Good Omen on Amazon Prime) or regale you with conversational highlights. But I’ll leave those as private.

There were some fantastic sights from the windows, and watching the scenery change from the desert southern portion of the country to the more lush north was fun.

Once arrived in Venice, we went to check into our hotel, The Continental. It’s right near the train station so we didn’t bother hiring one of the porters swarming outside the station. It’s a funky property and the room is nice but exceptionally small. I get that Venice is old and there’s limited construction, but this is really tight. However, in an attempt to help you forget about the room, the hotel is a maze. Really. It’s a nightmare getting around. Thank goodness we are not out drinking at night because there is NO WAY we’d ever find our room. Literally, the easiest path involves two elevators (the first taken above our floor) and the second to access stairs which will get you the rest of the way. Not cool.

Dinner tonight was at Trattoria Povoledo, between us and the train station. The food andnwime were fantastic, but the highlight was sitting on the canal. The view was fun, just avoid the occasionally pungent odor. We were all happy to be off the train and we enjoyed laughing together. I think it was the best time we’ve had at a meal since we arrived.

Tonight calls for some sleep and a hearty breakfast in the morning before we explore a city and try to keep our feet dry. On the plus side, the forecast is calling for high 70s tomorrow and we couldn’t be happier to escape the blazing heat.