The flight from Chicago to Rome went as smoothly as we could have asked, with virtually no turbulence and an arrival time ahead of schedule. Amanda and I were also fortunate to spread out across a row of 3 seats, giving us just a bit of extra space that was helpful for eating, reading, blogging, and trying to sleep. As usual, the airline meals were fairly underwhelming, but the granola mix served with the breakfast yogurt was great!
I like to document airplane meals, even though they’re largely underwhelming.
Once we landed, we had three hours to get from the airport to the train station, where we’d booked tickets for a high-speed train trip to Venice. We landed early and were pointed to a very short line for American visitors until we were asked about Noah’s age. Since he was under 14, we had to go through a more manual customs process and waited in line for nearly an hour.
Amanda and Noah were not amused waiting for customs.
After working our way through the airport exit, a bathroom break, and using a self-serve kiosk to buy tickets, we boarded the Leonardo Express train. It was a 32-minute ride that took us quickly from the airport to the Rome Termini train station. Things were going smoothly until our tickets were checked, and we were informed that we needed an adult ticket for Noah. Turns out, 12 is the cut-off age, a detail I didn’t read on the self-service machine.
The airport was mostly well-labeled with train signs like these.
Buying the €14 ticket wasn’t a big deal, but we found ourselves also paying a €50 fine for the oversight. The agent was somewhat apologetic but showed no wiggle room for negotiation. Some subsequent internet searches suggested that fines are common on Italian trains and it’s important to ensure tickets are validated upon entry and the rider matches the ticket type purchased. At least we had validated!
This photo was taken pre-fine.
The ticketing snafu cost us some money but we still arrived at the Rome Termini station with almost an hour to spare until our Venice train departed. We lugged our bags around the station, popping in and out of a couple of shops before watching the signs to see when a track was assigned for our train. Scanning our tickets, boarding, stowing our luggage, and finding our seats was a painless process this time around.
Signs at the Rome train station show upcoming departures, and the track number once it’s known.
We paid a few extra Euros for first-class seats, which put us around a table and included a welcome drink and snack near the beginning of our journey. The extra space and goodies were appreciated, but the seats weren’t quite as comfortable as I’d expected and the ‘premium wifi’ included with the tickets was disappointing. Nonetheless, it was a smooth trip on the train, which traveled at least as fast as 270 km per hour at times, and all of us slept on and off throughout the ride.
The complimentary snack included chips, cola, water, and small piece of dark chocolate.
I caught up on some work when I wasn’t sleeping on the train.
Arriving in Venice was a ton of fun, as you immediately saw the grand canal when exiting the train station. We quickly dropped more than 100 Euros on transit passes to cover our Venice public transportation during our 3-day stay. We rode the Venice Vaporetto a few stops before getting off to walk toward the spot where we could catch a private boat to our hotel.
A borderline-overwhelming amount of information about Vaporetto ticket options.
We rode this Venetian boat to the Rialto Market stop.
A longer ride on the Vaporetto would have gotten us almost all of the way to the boat pickup point, but we opted to get off earlier, walk a bit, and grab some gelato and a meal. Carrying our luggage made this a little more complicated than it would have been otherwise, but Google Maps was a game changer for Venice navigation, and we had no trouble finding the food stops or our boat pickup dock.
Our route took us across the famous Rialto Bridge, so we snapped a couple of photos from the side.
The first stop was for the recommended Suso Gelateria, our first opportunity for gelato on this vacation. The line was long — 18 minutes until we were served — but a few people behind us commented it was worth the wait, and, in the end, I think it was. The gelato we tried was super-high-quality, so much so that Noah quickly proclaimed it was better than Jeni’s. Amanda had a cheesecake flavor, Noah went with stracciatella (like chocolate chip), and I tried Olympia, which was a hazelnut base with pistachio butter and raspberry jam. (It was divine.)
A view of Suso gelato with a more scenic background.
Our second stop was at Rossopomodoro, a chain restaurant that was listed in the Rick Steves guidebook as a reasonably-priced spot serving Neapolitan-style pizza and pasta. While Naples is on our itinerary for later in the trip, we knew Noah likes pizza and pasta, and the idea of a relatively informal, predictable spot seemed like a solid choice.
Amanda wasn’t as interested in another restaurant photo.
We were seated quickly and immediately brought a large menu, printed in three languages with photos of every dish, which is likely the same as can be found at their other 59 Italy locations. In theory, this is not what you’re looking for when dining in Italy — but, there was something to be said for having a great idea of what our entree would look like before it arrived at our table.
Noah went with the carbonara pasta, Amanda tried their Porcinella pizza (topped with mozzarella, mushrooms, ham, parmesan wafers, and more), and I ordered their Caprese salad. We all enjoyed our meals, and the accompanying bread, but had a little more food than we could finish. For the record, Noah preferred his pasta to the Chicago pizza from a day prior, a good sign of things to come for our future Italian eating.
The boat ride to the JW Marriott Venice Resort was easy, though Amanda and I were so tired we remember little about it. We were checked into our suite, which was upgraded from our original booking due to my Marriott elite status. The extra space should prove beneficial over the next three days, and it was a great feeling to unpack our luggage and settle in after 24+ hours of travel.
Our room was part of the L’Uvieto building, a short walk from the main facility.
Noah and I decided to take the boat back into Venice to explore a bit before nightfall. I again nodded off on the boat, but we had fun spending a little over an hour walking around the island, popping into a couple of grocery stores, and revisiting our newfound gelato spot. We were back to the hotel before 9:00, looking forward to a good night of sleep before a busy Wednesday.
Our small ‘supper’
More gelato, this time in a cup with an edible spoon and cup.