Race Walking to the Train Station

We barely got on our train from Venice to Rome. We decided to leave our hotel at 3 pm to  be at the train station in plenty of time to be on our 4:35 pm train. All was going OK we had our tickets to get on the public water taxi and it was arriving in 4 min. It arrived but we didn't get on because it was already too full. The app for the public water taxis said when the next public water taxi arrived we would arrive at the train station at 4:26 pm. Tasha wisely suggested that we walk to the train station. Google maps said  28 min. to walk. So Tasha put out destination of the train station into Google maps on my phone. My colleague Marianna, Tasha, and I all hustled off through the very narrow winding paths of Venice. Up and over many bridges we went. Then we got to a very wide canal and the directions were to take the public water taxi to the other side. So we were dependent once again on a public water taxi.

There are private water taxis and  I offered to pay for one but how do you flag down a private water taxi? Not by standing by the side of a canal and waving while it speeds on by. My friend Marianna went into a hotel and they were calling a private water taxi for us when the public water taxi arrived. We took it one stop to the other side of the canal and off we were speed walking to the train station.  We got there at 4:25 pm and on the train with 10 minutes to spare. I was dripping with sweat. The train pulled out right on time at 4:35 pm.

Venice is a walking city. On my pedometer it recorded that I walked 8.2 miles on Saturday and 8.4 on Sunday. I think Sunday's miles must count for more because we were "booking it".

I don't think that  Marianna will ever want to travel again with me. Tasha did a great job of leading us through the maze of pathways through Venice. She and Marianna stayed calm and I of course was the panicked one.

I am sure that the decision to "race walk" to the train station was the right one. I don't think we would have made it via public water taxi.

Thankfully we got on the train and arrived in Rome as scheduled.

The adventures of travel! - Nancy