Epic Europe Trip 2014 Day 13: Losing Lots of Keys Lately
Have I mentioned how much we both love Venice? If not then I will reiterate it again here, we absolutely love Venice. We woke up this morning with huge grins on our faces. Its the first time all trip we've gotten up right away under our own will-power to go out and enjoy more of Venice. At around 8AM we were ready and went down to the first floor for breakfast. The Aqua Palace had a pretty nice spread for breakfast. The normal staples of eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese, deli meat, fruit, and pastries. We loaded up for breakfast in their nice little dining room and then headed out to an absolutely stunning morning.
Unlike yesterday which had the fog not clear until a little before sunset, this morning was crystal clear. We made our way towards Piazza San Marco and stopped at a small cafe on our way there. The one negative I can say about our Europe trip so far is that the coffee has been awful, and this morning was no different at our hotel. When Jenn recommended to stop in a cafe on our walk I was all in. Jenn got a hot chocolate and I had a cappuccino and both hit the spot. After finishing our drinks we were off to the Piazza San Marco which instantly reminded me of our 2012 trip where the square was flooded. Luckily this time the police put out platforms to walk on that held you above the couple of inches of water covering the ground.
From the piazza we continued walking along the Grand Canal until we got to the Rialto bridge one of the most picturesque spots in all of Venice. We took a ton of photos and even walked by where Jenn and I and my siblings had dinner before heading out on our cruise the next day in 2012. From there it was time to head back to our hotel so we could get our bag, check out, and head to the train station to make our 1PM train to Rome.
When we got back to our room, the first (and hopefully last) real snafu almost occurred. As we were re-packing our bag we couldn't find our key to the Rome hotel. For most hotels it wouldn't matter as they give you a card with a magnetic strip that can be recoded and no problem. Unfortunately Hotel Majestic in Rome uses an old school brass key that has our hotel name and room number on it. After searching for twenty minutes through our small Venice hotel room we came up empty. Jenn called the Rome hotel to find out what we would need to do if we did in fact lose it and if they could look and make sure all of our belongings were still in the room. The hotels concierge asked us to call back in ten minutes while someone checked. About a minute before Jenn was about to call back she noticed a weird bulge right under the duvet and sure enough there was our Rome hotel key. PRAISE GOD! Crisis averted. Jenn called back and told the hotel concierge the good news and we went downstairs and checked out from the Aqua Palace.
Because of the missing key we were delayed about a half hour which didn’t let us go back to the Ponte dell’ Accademia where we wanted to put a gold lock we purchased pre-trip on the bridge to commemorate our time in Venice. Instead we took the ferry back to the train station and put the lock on the gorgeous Ponte degli Scalzi. After putting on the lock we saw a small café right next to the train station and stopped to split one of the best margherita pizzas I’ve ever had. It was thin crust and was bursting with flavor. After the quick lunch Jenn saw a gelato stand and went and got a scoop of their incredible caramel gelato.
We walked from the gelato stand straight on board our first class cabin on the Italo train back to Rome. Within ten minutes of our train departing Jenn had fallen asleep and I was left to work on my WorldofJoel posts and look back on our amazing pictures from the trip so far.
We arrived back in Rome a little before 5PM and took the Metro back to our hotel. We got back to the amazing Hotel Majestic and felt relieved to be able to take our rediscovered key out of my bag and get back to our room overlooking Via Veneto. Right when we got back to our room we could feel all of the travel of the last couple of days catch up to us so we knew if we were going to go get dinner we better do so before we pass out. I looked on Yelp for a nearby restaurant and we were off.
The restaurant is called That’s Amore and is only a couple of minutes from our hotel. Jenn navigated us there and within minutes we were sitting at a beautiful window seat ready for a great meal. We both started with a glass of wine. Jenn had their house red and I went with their house white. To start we had their Bruchette. For our main course Jenn had their pasta bolognase and I had their carbonara, which had pork cheeks instead of bacon. I loved it. Everything at That’s Amore was out of this world and was easily in the conversation for best meal we’ve had the entire trip.
After dinner we walked back to our hotel, watched a couple of episodes of New Girl and called it a night. After having such an excellent time in Venice it was great to back in Rome and have two full days left to enjoy this wonderful city.
