Initially, I mentioned going to Venice for a gondola trip to my roomie Jessica and new bestie Torey. So we planned on visiting for the day this passed Saturday; just for the day. Then more and more people joined the cause and it turned into about ten people, so Rebecca and I decided we would go just the two of us from our program's day trip in Florence, spend the night in a hostel and meet up with everyone else the day after in Venice. Then it grew into, well, why don't we just stay two nights in Venice!
So, the plan was: Day trip in Florence (Firenze) with the Accademia on Friday, train to Venice Friday evening, hostel, Venice for all of Saturday, hostel, train back to Arezzo Sunday afternoon.
Well, I had no idea that there are different train stations within the same towns. So, in Venice (Venezia) there is Venezia Porto Marghera, Venezia Mestre, Venezia Mestre Ospedale, Venezia Santa Lucia (which is ON the actual island of Venezia; the others are on the mainland), among others, just like there is apparently Firenze Rifredi and Firenze Santa Maria Novella (which is apparently where the Accademia took us). So when I got tickets online from Firenze to Venezia for both Rebecca and I, I got them from the Rifredi station.
We figured, well, since Rifredi was only one stop back, it must go through Santa Maria Novella, right? So we got on the train knowing it might be the wrong train. Even the digital signs that say where trains are going said this train was going to Venezia Santa Lucia, and our hostel was in Marghera. So we took a chance. Pretty soon, the conductor came by to punch our tickets and he told us we were on the wrong train and we feigned surprise but he charged us extra because it wasn't the train we initially paid for. BUt we made sure to ask, "But this train DOES go to Venezia, right?" "Si, si, si." Okay.
Two hours later, we were in Rome!!
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It's been about a week since I typed what you see above and I've been too tired to explain fully, so I'll just briefly summarize what happened to me last weekend, because now I really am supposed to go to Rome. We're leaving on the Rome overnight trip in about ten minutes, so let me get it out quickly.
I've been taking lots of pictures, but I just got really beaten up this week. So I haven't posted any. I will soon.
Mostly from the sheer exhaustion of what happened trying to get to Venice... which you still haven't heard that story because I've been too tired to finish my blog. Basically, Rebecca and I spent 109 euro on train tickets and 75 euro on a hostel for two nights and went on the Florence day trip with everyone. We were supposed to catch the train to Venice from a different station in Florence (neither of us realized it mattered) and we found out it was the wrong train. Not a problem except that the conductor checking tickets charged us extra, we continually made sure the train was going to Venice... it even said so on the little screens all over, but it took us to Rome and that was the last stop with no more until morning. The train had BEEN to Venice but it was going the wrong way. Needless to say we were tired very hungry and had no way of getting home. We tried to use some people's phones because the ones in the terminal kept eating our money and terminating the call at one minute. Finally found someone who spoke enough English to understand that we were only calling Arezzo, not USA, and we called the Accademia dell'arte Emergency Phone and no one answered. So we were stuck as stuck can be.
We talked to Customer Care for about twenty minutes while she told us there was nothing she could do as she gradually got more and more upset that we weren't understanding why.
So, she cursed a little to get out the frustration, I cried a lot. That kind of crying like in the movie "Something's Gotta Give." Diane Keaton's character is writing a play about the good and tough times she'd had in the passed two weeks and cries every other ten minutes or so. She appears to be fine one minute, and the next it's, "WHY ARE WE IN ROME??" and "Can we just go to Venezia??" and "Let's just go back home."
Eventually, out of desperation, we bought MORE tickets back to Arezzo, and decided to buy MORE tickets to Venezia when we got there. We got back around 2:30am and looked up prices for tickets in the morning and there were none. It was too late to buy tickets for that morning. On the train, if you buy a cheap ticket for a closeby place but decide to stay on the train to go further, you can, you just have to pay a little extra (sometimes less than you would have paid at the self kiosk or online). While we were on our way home, I prayed that the train we were on would go to Venice. It did! I asked how much and it was only 28 euro each if we stayed on the train and kept sleeping. Rebecca hadn't been sleeping well lately though, and she wanted to go home even if it was only to sleep in her own bed. (Arezzo really does feel like home to both of us, but that night I just wanted to be in Venice and not think about it anymore.) So, we got off at Arezzo.
The next morning, Torey, Vanessa and Teresa missed their train because Teresa's flip flop broke, so we caught the next train with them (it was extremely difficult to get those tickets also) We had to buy tickets for a later time but get onto the one we needed and then we would have paid more when they came around to ckeck our tickets. They didn't, thank you God.
Eventually we got to Venezia and everything was great. I write more about that later. The fun we had together and even when the others had to leave was worth the excruciating desperation of Friday evening.
And now I have not much money left because I couldn't get back the first night's stay in the hostel or the first set of train tickets in addition to the rest of the train tickets we had to purchase. I owe Rebecca some money too cause I only brought what I thought I would need. I would have been right if every thing had gone according to the plan... but we know how that rarely happens.
Off to Rome now.... FOR REAL!
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