So the plan was train to Milan , stop for a couple of hours ,train to Venice. So I bought tickets to Milan – first class as 2nd class was sold out. Pretty much the whole trip the scenery was just built up areas . At Milan we tried to find storage for our bags but found it too difficult so we bought tickets for Venezia Santa Lucia – you just have to know to enter the right thing in the ticket machine. The built up areas of Milan soon gave way to large area of farmland consisting mainly of corn and later grapes. The train travels very fast , the top speed must be around 200km/h ,2:40 for 280km with stops. On arriving in Venice we got the tourism office to book a hotel for us and then found our way to the ferry ( not the size of a Sydney ferry) to take us around the Grand canal to Salute , the stop nearest our quaint 2 star hotel. After a long pleasant walk and getting lost , which is easy to do as there is no “ring road ” as such round any of the islands and it is a maze of canals and narrow streets, we went for dinner at a place serving authentic Italian food . I must admit we were both pleasantly surprised by Venice and it is much cleaner that we thought it would be . I don’t know that I’d swim in the water ( there is too much traffic anyway) but there appears to be normal green weed growing and plenty of fish.
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