Early to bed early to rise and morning came very quickly, alarm went off at 4:30am and out of bed into the shower, dressed and out the door by 5:15am down to the entrance to the underground station only to find that it was locked up, now let me tell you I had asked a shop keeper if the station was opened 24 hours, "yes was her reply" spoke to a man who was also waiting for the station to open and he had no idea when they unlocked it, waited a while and as we had to get over to the central station to catch the fast train to Venice at 6:30 decided we would get a taxi, went over to the taxi rank and got talking to a girl there, who went off her brain as she had rung for a taxi some time pass and she was still waiting, believe me she did not hold back, definitely was able to understand her language, finally her taxi came, she left and thankfully we only had about another 5 minute wait before another taxi came.

Train trip to Venice only took two and a half hours getting of the train and out of the station there is Venice right in front of you canals and all, not having an idea of where to go we decided to follow the crowd as they seemed to be all going in the one direction, do you know as we winded through narrow streets and alley ways we finally realised we were on our own, the crowd had dispersed in every direction possible, so headed for a boat landing to get our bearings and worked out that we were never going to get to the square this way. Got on board a boat, sat down and got talking to a lady who is from Sydney but actually now lives in Venice and within a few minutes she realised we were going in the wrong direction, gave us quick instructions and off the boat we flew, to wait for the correct one
Finally disembarking we found our way to St Marks Square and was blown away at the sheer size of it and just wandered around the whole square, we were told to get there early before all the passengers from the cruise ships arrived and even though there was a crowd it was still comfortable, a lot of photos and just wandering around, unfortunately we were unable to go into the Cathedral (St Marks Bascilica) as it was closed and would not be opened until 2pm therefore a quick coffee and lunch and we headed back into the maze of streets as we had seen a few shops we needed to go back to, eventually working our way back to the railway station and walking around amongst the many street stalls and finding a place for lunch, pizza and it was damm good, finally leaving Venice and arriving back in Milan around 7:30 very tired and worn out, my Fitbit advises we had walked over 13 kilometres.

Our plan for Friday was to visit the lakes area, especially Varena, Bellagio and Como, but this was up for debate, deciding to sleep and see what the morning brings,

One Interesting Fact...

The next day was Good Friday but would you believe Italy does not recognise Good Friday, they only really celebrate Easter Sunday and Monday as a holiday

Friday

We both woke up ready to go, so off to breakfast and then the Central Station to get our tickets for the Lakes District, the trip to Varenna took about 90 minutes, going through the mountains still with snow on top, just beautiful, we left the train to a cold misty morning but a a stroll around the town soon warmed us up, quaint town, traditional village, quiet alleys, stunning views and all paths are cobblestones and damm hard on your feet, headed back and caught the ferry over to Bellagio, this town is located halfway between the two most southernmost branches of the lake, and boy was this place crowded, very pretty with all buildings well maintained and painted in all colours and all little very narrow streets that are actually steps and hard to climb, finally working our way back to the lakeshore and caught the ferry to Como, As we took the fast ferry this took just over an hour and as we left the boat and realised the sheer size of Como we decided enough was enough and headed for the station to go back to Milan

I think my favourite town was Varenna, it was a little village, quiet and quaint.