We woke up and ate breakfast at the hotel again, then decided to make some more blog posts and try uploading some video. The sweaty Internet place wasn’t open yet, but it just so happens that our friends at the pizza, kebab, and sandwich place (who thought we were Swedish) were located right across the street.
“They are closed!” the guy yells out. “Go down the street. They are family.”
“Merci and au revoir!” we responded.
This Internet place was more our style. It was filled with people checking email or doing other regular tasks on the Internet. No sweaty, teenage gamers!
We took care of business, then wandered back down to the market we had walked though the day before. We stocked up on some goods for the train ride, then took a stroll on the promenade by the beach.
This was a much nicer day that the previous. It was probably 75 degrees and sunny. People were everywhere on the beach. I even saw a topless sunbather, but I forgot to snap a photo.
Nice 2007-04-14 002
We grabbed some lunch, then headed back to the train station. Our train left at about 2:00 in the afternoon. The plan was to go to Milan, then grab another train to Venice.
On the way, we rode by Monte Carlo and I was able to catch a few photos of it from a distance. I wish we would have visited for a day, but there is only time for so much. Our train followed the Mediterranean until Genova, Italy. The entire length was beautiful! I could see bodies along the beaches the entire length.
Nice 2007-04-14 011
It was interesting to notice the language difference right when we crossed the border into Italy. All the signage was in Italian and it seemed like the people on the train immediately switched to speaking Italian right when we crossed the border.
At Genova, our train turned north to Milan. Sitting in the cab with us was an adorable little girl (about five years old) with her grandmother. On the way, her grandmother was teaching her how to write numbers. As the girl was writing, the grandmother was calling out the numbers in Italian. I think the lesson was more beneficial for me than the girl.
By the end of the ride, Darcy had made a friend. The little girl would hide her head and say “uno, due, estella! (one, two, star!)”. When she said “estella” she would pop out her head and smile. Darcy would repeat and both the girl and the grandmother would laugh (probably at her attempt at Italian). When we left the train, Darcy gave the little girl a button.
Oh, another observation: Everyone we have encountered so far has been very accommodating of the fact that we only speak English. A lot of people here speak English fluently or at least no enough to communicate with us. It made me think of the attitude that I see in the States toward people who don’t speak English. “If you’re going to come to our country, you should speak our language” is the attitude I see. Thankfully for Darcy and I, the Europeans have not had this attitude toward us.
Our train arrived in Milan about 10 minutes late. We had 7 minutes to figure out what platform our train to Venice was on and board it before it departed. We ran and made it with hardly a minute to spare.
There was a stark difference between the friendly grandmother and grandchild in our cab on the previous train and the people in our cab on this train. There was a businessman, a professional woman, and an ultra-goddy woman in our cab. They were all very well dressed and sneered at us when we entered the cabin. The woman sitting next to Darcy looked like an old catcher’s mitt with pink, sparkly lipstick and silk pants. Gross!
We arrived at the Venice Mestre station at 10:00 pm. The station is located on the mainland as opposed to the Venice Santa Lucia station, which is located on the Venetian Islands.
We searched out a hotel within a couple blocks of the station and called it a night. This was much easier at that hour than trying to find something in Venice. We would grab a train early the next day and spend all day there, so there was no need to actually stay in Venice.
The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Paris. Sadly, the first thing I thought of when I saw the hotel was Paris Hilton as opposed to the city of Paris. I have been corrupted by popular culture :(
Click here to see all our Nice photos.
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