The Train Ride to Venice

I know we are a couple of days behind on the blog, but we have enjoyed Venice so much we just have not turned on the computer. We started our Tuesday morning by making out way to the train station in Florence. I must admit, we were a little sad to be leaving Florence and wondering if Venice could even come close to how much we liked Florence. After finding the train we settled in for the approximate three hour train ride. The couple sitting by us was from Singapore, so much of the ride was spent trading travel stories. They were heading to Venice and then to Switzerland. I tell you about this couple for a reason (yes...there is a story there). So as we made a couple of stops on the train, Steven and I noticed that there were actually two stops in Venice, one being a greater distance from where we needed to be. It seems that in the booking of the train tickets I made a tactical error. I was unaware that Venice had two stops and booked the wrong stop, which was 15 minutes outside Venice proper. So after discovering this (thanks to Steven's keen eye) I became a little worried about how to handle the situation at hand. Well as with any tourist in an unknown world we did the logical thing....we became stowaways. Yes I am telling the truth. As the train approached our stop, the nice couple from Singapore and Steven made the executive decision we would stay on the train and hope for the best. Me, I was ready to get off the train and find a driver. I just saw this going very bad. So we sat there for the remainder of the ride waiting and looking for the attendant to make his/her way to check the tickets (as they did at every stop). Every time the door opened, I was looking for the red uniform and the words "ticket please." I can report, with much luck the train attendant never made it to our train car and yes....we can now say we have jumped a train (well in theory) without having a ticket.
The arrival in Venice was amazing to say the least. To walk out of the train station and be right on the water then to find a water bus to take us to the hotel we as so much fun. However, I must admit it is nice that the Hilton has it's own private water bus for its guest. This makes things a lot easier for us to get to different areas of Venice. After arriving at the hotel, we spent a couple of hours relaxing and then made out way to the Piazza San Marco. We did nothing more than walk around and enjoy the city. Looking at the shops, buildings and just enjoying the sites.