Update on the trip: 9/26-28

OK, here goes....
As most of you know by now or could probably guess, this trip has hit a formidable snag. After my first day in Venice, I logged on to the Internet to post my first day's blog. I had to pay to use the Internet & that is what began the problems that followed.
The credit card I used to pay for the Internet had a stop payment put on it because my credit card company is run by morons. To call the credit card company, I had to put the phone charge on my second card which prompted THAT company to put a hold on that 2nd card. I didn't find out about that 2nd hold until the following day when, only having 25 euros left, stopped at an ATM to get more cash & was denied. Unfortunately, the phone numbers on the back of my 2nd card were no good & there was no way to contact them while I was in Italy, so that card was officially dead. I had to see if my first card was OK, so I had my hotel put a 1 euro charge on it, and although it went through, it flagged my card AGAIN & my first card was put on hold, AGAIN! So, there I was in Venice with no use of my cards and only 25 euros to my name. I tried calling a few people in the states collect but since you cannot call collect to a mobile phone, I could only call my brother on our land line phone. He was able to calm me down and get me to focus on solving this money problem. Without much spending cash, I was unfortunately unable to eat and eventually went almost 2 days without a bite to eat! I needed the euros I had to get either to the airport or the train station (and I was unsure if I even had enough to do that!).
Using collect calling, I got a hold of my 1st credit card company and got that card activated again, but was told that one more time & the card would be cancelled & reissued without me having a say in it. To make matters worse, I found out Sunday night that for some reason, I could no longer call my brother collect anymore & was on my own again. LOVE the Venice calling system. The international operator was of no help whatsoever & would not connect me to toll free numbers & I had no service at all on my cell phone.
So I made a decision & it was a hard one to make - I had to try & fly home, take care of my cards and try and fly back in time for the Rome leg of this trip. Luckily, my card was not flagged a 3rd time & I was able to buy a ticket & fly back to LA today. I now have 4 days to get everything in order before I take off this Sat for Rome. It sucks to have to skip Florence, but I would have been screwed if I had used all my remaining cash to get to Florence, had my 1st card cancelled in the process and had nowhere to stay if I couldn't charge the B&B to my card. Even with $$ wired to me, it wouldn't have gotten to me until Tuesday and that would have made almost 4 days without food, so that would have been fun. I also needed cash for the Rome leg to get the apartment.
So this ends a jumbled update. I am currently, as I write this back in my apartment in LA and getting ready to open fire on my credit card companies tomorrow. What fun! The good news is that I am OK & if everything goes well, I should be able to get things taken care of in time to get to Rome this weekend.

Day 1: September 25

I can't even begin to describe how tired I am right now.

I have been up since 8am on Thursday morning & it is currently 9pm in Venice on Friday. The flights were fine, considering that the Air France jet I was in reminded me way too much of those flying coffins that NWA (not the rap group) has. I saw 3 flicks on board "The Boat that Rocked", "Duplicity" and "Night at the Museum 2" (I know!) The first 2 were OK, and the less said about MUSEUM, the better.

I arrived in Venice and made my way to Antico Panada, the hotel I THOUGHT I would be staying at. Unfortunately, they had made a little mistake and gave away my room. They took me a few streets over and put me up in a sister hotel for the night with the hope that tomorrow I might get to stay at the hotel I actually booked.

Around 5pm I went for a walk around my hotel's neighborhood & made my way to the Rialto. This is a bridge that overlooks the grand canal & was originally established around the 9th century as a market for merchants. These days it is still a market, but the main attraction is the view of the canal from the bridge.

After stopping to take a few pics, I had some pizza from a street vendor & ended the day with some delicious gelato. I am now about to crash for the night & get ready for my first full day in Venice tomorrow.

The day before the trip

Well, damn!
Today it is finally beginning to sink in that I am actually flying to Italy tomorrow. I have pretty much everything taken care of (hopefully). My plane takes off from LAX around 3:30pm tomorrow and arrives (after a connection in Paris) in Venice around 2:20 Friday afternoon. I have already looked at the Air France airline website and there is a distinct lack of options for in-flight entertainment. It looks like my options boil down to which flick do I want to see least..."Night at the Museum 2" or a second viewing of "The Proposal". Maybe I'll just read a book.
The next time I update this will be from my first night in Venice.

Only a few weeks left

I think I have finally finished. I have just purchased what I think (and hope) is the final travel purchase in preparation of this coming vacation. I went out this weekend and bought myself a band new suitcase. My old one was just fine, but I needed something a little larger to hold several weeks of clothing in. The other purchase I made were train tickets.
Here is my current plan for this trip: I fly to Venice on 9/24 where I have made a hotel reservation for a few days so I can check out the city. On 9/28, I take the train to Florence where I hope to see the city as well as possibly take a day trip or two to one of the following places: Sienna, Pisa, Lucca or Arezzo. On 10/4, I take the last train ride - to Rome. I have reserved an apartment in Rome only a few blocks from the Roman Coliseum. I can't wait to see the museums and architecture of Rome & Vatican City. I get over a week to check out this amazing city and then on 10/12 I fly back to LA.

Places I am staying while in Italy...

Venice
Antico Panada (Hotel) 9/25-28
Calle Specchieri 646, Venice, Italy

Florence
Casa Nuestra (B&B) 9/28-10/4
Viale dei Mille 8, Florence, Italy

Rome
(Apartment Rental) 10/4-12
Via Capo d'Africa 50 Apt #308, Rome, Italy


I can't wait!