June 2, 2011 - Venice to Bologna

Got a quick breakfast at the hotel and then checked out quickly of our awful room.  The desk clerk argued with me about the height of our ceiling until I asked if he wanted to see for himself.  We headed to the train station to drop our bags off there.  We tried to get on an earlier train to bologna, but they were all booked until our train.  We headed back on the boat bus towards the Rialto bridge - a really neat bridge.  Mark stopped at two different atms looking for cash, since he only had 5 euros, but only found atms that would deposit a cash advance.  (found out later this is just how most italian atms give cash to us bank cards)  We took some pictures and then headed towards San Marco or saint mark's basilica.  We had a reservation, so we skipped the line and they told us no bags but we could check them at a nearby church.  It was amazing inside and out.  We then walked around st marks square to take in how large it was and how many people were stuffed into it.  Then we headed for the water to take some pics and look at some souvenir stands.  Then we stood in line for doge's palace.  After about 30 minutes, I got to the counter to find they only accepted cash!  So we headed back towards the Rialto bridge and got a fanta and a Italian version of a corn dog - a big hot dog wrapped with dough and stuffed with ketchup.  We then headed back to the train station to wait on the front steps to people watch for a couple hours until our train came.  We arrive in bologna and take a taxi to our hotel to a oid a long walk in the hot sun.  We arrive to a really nice, spacious hotel.  The front desk attendant was extremely nice and offered to make us dinner reservations since it was a major Italian holiday today.  We rested up and the headed to dinner.  The restaurant was very good and then we headed back towards the hotel after walking through a bunch of street vendors selling random things.  Laura buys a pair of sunglasses, then we stop for a bottle of wine to drink on our roof.  The wine was terrible, but the view was amazing.  It was nice to relax after a hectic trip so far.  Bologna wasn't very impressive to walk through, but was nice to look at from above.