It’s been a long day. Long flights. Long, slow boat ride. Long schlep through winding Venetian alleyways to our hotel. But we made it. We were ready to conk out, but there was one more challenge in store for us. Mamma mia!
When we entered the hotel, the receptionist welcomed us and said he was expecting us. That’s always reassuring to hear in a far-away land.
Now all we had to do was get to our room and conk out for awhile. It was 7:00pm Venice time, so if we slept for a couple of hours, we’d still have time to go out for something to eat.
The Room
The receptionist led us down a narrow, winding hallway, then up a few twisting stairs to our room. Is there anything in Venice that’s in a straight line? If there is, I hadn’t seen it yet.
The room looked nice enough, but really, the only thing I was looking at was the bed. There was one. That’s all I cared about at the time. We didn’t even bother to unpack. We hit the sack and conked out.
Two hours later, the alarm went off. Time to get up and force ourselves to go out and get something to eat. Otherwise, we’d be wide awake at 2:00am and jetlagged all day tomorrow.
Whenever we get to a new hotel room, I like to check the view from the window. Now that I was partially awake, I went over to the window and pulled back the curtains. Instead of a window, I was looking at a massive, black, wood-and-iron barricade of some sort. Mamma mia!
Am I dreaming?
My first thought was, “Am I dreaming?” I thought we had checked into a hotel with a nice receptionist, but was he really some psycho dude who’s locked us away in a dungeon?”
Let’s see… to get to the room, I remembered taking some twisting stair steps up, so our room couldn’t be in the basement. The window might be boarded up because another building is right next to this one. Maybe not being able to see the building next door was for the best.
Being in a room with a boarded up window wasn’t the greatest of accommodations, but I wasn’t going to worry about it until tomorrow. For now, we just wanted to go out, have some dinner, come back, and get some real sleep.
Dinnertime
Outside the hotel, it was nice to be able to walk around without shlepping our bags along. And now I didn’t have the pressure of trying to find our hotel. We could just stroll around at our leisure until we found someplace that looked like a good spot for dinner.
It didn’t take long. Just a couple of zigs and a couple of zags through some curvy Venetian passageways, and we came upon a place that looked just fine. We went in.
“Benvenuto signor et signora.”
Oh no you don’t — no Italian for me yet. I’m not ready! We just got here and my brain was still addled from the trip. There would be plenty of chances to try it out later.
We had a nice dinner. Pasta and vino make everything better, eh? After dinner we went back to the hotel to conk out for real. We needed some serious sleep. OK, lights out.
Sleep is a Good Thing
The night passed. We slept and slept and slept. Is there anything better than sleeping when you’re really, really tired? I mean, I was asleep, but I know it was good.
When I woke up, I felt human again. Then I remembered the boarded-up window. I walked over to have another look. Hmmm… I thought it had been permanently sealed up, but maybe it opens up after all.
One of the big iron pieces looked like it might be a handle. After jiggling things around and a couple of pushes, the big, black shutters opened up. Oh boy.
It was a window after all! And we had a little balcony that hung our right over a canal. Gondolas were already gliding down the canal. A church was on the other side. Our hotel room overlooked the church’s courtyard. It was beautiful. All of a sudden, things were looking up!
To be continued…
Note
We were staying at Hotel La Fenice et des Artistes, (which turned out to be very nice).
