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Day 35 - We left Como for a short 50 minute train ride to a connecting service at Milan for the high speed train into Venice. While in Milan we had the unfortunate experience of a pick pocket taking Phil's mobile phone whilst boarding the train to Venice. To make the trip even worse, the air conditioning in our carriage was malfunctioning. The staff spent most of the 2 hour journey trying to get it working. We were glad to be off the train in Venice, but spent the first hour at the police office in the station complex reporting the theft. The next hour was spent battling the crowds to get to our hotel, located quite some distance from the station. We first had to catch a crowded water bus to a busy terminal (called the Rialto) then find our way down crowded narrow streets and up and down steps over several canals. We found out later that this weekend was a major festival weekend in Venice, hence the crowds. Finally made it to the hotel, booked into a room on level 2 only to find out that there were no lifts and then to find out that the wi-fi was faulty. Not the best of starts for our 2 days in Venice. The only way around Venice was by foot or by water. Private water taxis were expensive, a minimum 80 euros per trip, so we opted for a 48 hour water bus pass on the public system that gave us unlimited travel for 30 euros. Our afternoon was spent exploring Venice (which you could not do without a map), finally having dinner at an Italian restaurant. We then decided to join the tens of thousands of party people at the popular Piazza san Marco, a huge square on the Grande Canal (the main canal in Venice). Not only was it crowded on shore, but the canal was filled with hundreds of party boats, all gathered to watch the 11.30 huge fireworks display. The non stop fireworks went for about 45 minutes, so we were glad to see the end of our first day in Venice (at about 1am).
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