Our long awaited trip to Europe finally arrived! We started out by flying from Indianapolis to Chicago and met up with the other 3 couples at the airport. We all coordinated to fly out of Chicago to Venice on the same flight. No one had any delays or flight issues which was a blessing. We had a meal at the Chili’s in the airport then found our gate for departure. Amazingly our flight was on time and we were all onboard ready for our overnight flight to Venice. We opted to fly on American Airlines, which we booked on our own and not through the cruise line. I have heard horror stories of flights booked through NCL; such as you can’t pick your flights and there was no guarantee that we would all be on the same flight. Additionally they wouldn’t let us fly in 3 days early like we had planned.
After a long night we arrived at the Marco Polo Airport in Venice, breezed through customs, found our luggage and we were on our way to find the water taxi that I had reserved for the 8 of us. The water taxi’s were quite easy to find as it was well marked it was just a bit of a walk. Between the 8 of us we had a bit of luggage but they were able to file it all into the taxi for us. The water was a bit choppy as we headed over to Venice. If you have not ever been to Venice your modes of transportation are the train, bus or car taxi to the transportation center and from there you have to walk to your destination. Or you can choose a private water taxi or public water taxi to take you to your destination in Venice. I had reserved San Cassiano Residenza D’Epoca which had it’s own dock so our private water taxi was able to take us right to our hotel. This was a must in my opinion so that we didn’t have to drag our luggage from one of the public docks. Our hotel was on the Grand Canal and was convenient to all of the sites. Our hotel is older, as is most building on Venice, and unfortunately there was not an elevator but they did have a bell hop that carried our luggage to our rooms. The hotel included breakfast and they had wonderful croissants every morning. My favorite had a lemon filling. We all took a nap and then talked to the front desk to get a recommendation for dinner. Though the food was okay I think we could have found someplace that had better selection and better taste.
The next day was suppose to rain so we headed out after breakfast to explore Venice. We wondered through the market, crossed the Rialto bridge and made our way to St. Marks Square. In the square we approached by a gentleman who offered us a trip to Murano to tour the glass blowing factory and shops. The glass blowing was fascinating and some of the pieces that they made were stunning. When we came back out of the shops it was pouring down rain so we decided to take a break for a drink and a snack. I had some gelato which was amazing! The rain was letting up so we decided to head back to Venice and caught on of the public taxi’s back to St. Mark’s square. From there we caught another water taxi to the public dock closest to our hotel so that we could all get out of our wet clothing and take a nap! For dinner we decided to head back out and find a restaurant on our own and the choice was much better, we found a restaurant that had wonderful pizza. Back at the hotel I spoke to the front desk to make a private water taxi reservation to take the 8 of us to the transportation center the next morning to catch our train to Trieste.
On the third day we had breakfast and met our water taxi at the hotels dock to take us to the transportation center to catch our train to Trieste; our cruise ship was departing from Trieste. Word of caution, if you use a porter to take your luggage from the water taxi to the train station it is 5 Euro’s per bag! There really was not anywhere to store our luggage on the train so we had to keep it in the seat next to you. I felt bad that we were taking up extra seats but we really didn’t have another option. The train ride was about 2.5 hours and was actually a nice way to travel to our destination. When we arrived in Trieste our hotel was about 2 blocks from the train stationed so we just walked. We stayed at the Hotel Roma in Trieste and it was easy to find and room was comfortable. There was an elevator but you still had stairs to get to the floor you were staying on. It really didn’t make much sense! We were all hungry so we headed out to see what we could find. Our first stop was a little bar/cafe, our server didn’t speak any English and none of us really spoke Italian but with a translator app and the help of another customer we were able to order drinks but unfortunately no one was interested in their choices of food, so we had a beverage and then headed out to find food. We ended up finding a nice restaurant that looked like it was very popular. We all enjoyed a nice meal and walk along the canal to look at some of the tents that were set up. We headed back to the hotel to get a good nights sleep as we board the NCL Escape the next day.