I arrived safely at Rome airport after a pretty long flight from KLIA. All in all the flight was about 11 and half hours. Fortunately I managed to get some sleep on the flight. About 6 hours in total. Although it was a bit crazy. I’d think I was half asleep, and when I opened my eyes an hour would have passed. On arriving we all got jammed into a bus and taken to the terminal. After getting my luggage, which gets treated pretty roughly by the machines, I wandered over to passport control. I went through the EU side in about 2 mind, thanks to my Irish passport. The non-eu queue was out the terminal. I reckon if I had had to go through non-EU queue on I wouldn’t have made it to my venice flight on time.
Now Rome airport is confusing as hell. landed in terminal C but somehow ended up coming out at terminal B. I needed to get to Terminal A which I assumed you needed a shuttle to get to. Eventually I found out you just leave the terminal turn left and walk into the next building. Found the Air One check in and got on the flight to Venice. The gate system for the airport is a bit messed but just looking at the terminal map helped.
Flight to Venice was nice. Only took an hour, which was good after being in the air for so long. Venice is much better organized than Rome and more tourist friendly. I followed the signs to the water taxi which was a short walk from the airport terminal. I was amazed at the number of American Tourists wandering around. So many of them.
I got a water taxi which I shared with two British ladies. The flat rate is €95. Each taxi could take 8 people comfortably. So the more people youhave the cheaper it is. I ended up paying about €32. Which isn’t bad considering the taxi to the airport in Adelaide would be the equivalent of about €20.
If there is one thing you need to do during a trip to Venice is go on a water taxi. It one of the most exciting things I’ve done for a while. They haul ass in the open waters, but go very slowly through the canals, so you take photos etc. Did’t take long to get to San Marco.
I was truly amazed at the site of San Marco Piaaza. It’s so beautiful. Took me an hour to cross it due to all the photos I was taking. I even got asked by a couple to take a photo for them, I guess I look like a reliable person, hehe.
I found my hotel after navigating the confusing streets. Even maps aren’t all that helpful to be honest. You eventually find it’s better to navigate by land marks. I had about an hour to kill before my room was ready, I had went back to San Marco square and headed north east. I found some really nice restaurants in the back alleys that were reasonably priced. For example I found a place that sold take away pizza slices. The slices were pretty big. Bigger than a dinner plate. That cost about €2.90. A much smaller slice of pizza nearer the square could be anything up to €10. Also found to ice cream shops which sold you two scoops of ice cream in a tube for €2. It was the best tasting ice cream I’ve ever had.
After that I checked back into my hotel, had a bath, got changed and phoned my parents. Thought I’d get a couple hours sleep so I crashed out. That was at about 2pm. Woke up at about 9pm. So much for a couple hours LOL.
Anyway until tomorrow.
