32nd Chapter – Venice/Verona/Dolomites 2026

This post is in chronological order.

Read from the top down.

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Cannes/ Friday, July 10, 2026

Today we left for a two-week trip to the Dolomites, in the Italian Alps. We are traveling with two friends from Chicago.

Our travels today took us by train from Cannes to Venice via  Milano.

The trip began with a bit of concern. We received notices that our 8:42 AM Cannes-to-Ventimiglia segment might be significantly disrupted due to mechanical issues along the route. If we missed our first connection, the other two segments would be way off, delaying our arrival.

The original plan was:

Cannes – Ventimiglia  1H/30M) (SNCF)  8:42 – 10:17 

Ventimiglia – Milano 4H/1M (Intercity 745) 10:59- 15:00

Milano – Venice 2H/15M  ( Fre 9737)   15:15 – 17:30

We debated taking an Uber to Ventimiligia, but decided to take a chance and stick to the original plan.  The long delay that was predicted never materialized, and we had time in Ventimiligia to pick up some provisions for the trip at the local market.

Halfway to Milano, our train was running late, too late to make the 15-minute connection.  Fortunately, it made up for the time, and we arrived with five minutes to spare before the connection.

The Milano-to-Venice leg was uneventful, and we arrived around 17:30. From the train station, we took a water bus to our stop.  Our friends had already arrived and were checking in.

We had booked very nice accommodation in Venice.

https://www.booking.com/hotel/it/the-venetian-penthouse.en-us.html

We dropped the bags at the apartment and took a water shuttle around the island.

That evening we had an average dinner at Al Assassini bistrot.

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Venice/ Saturday, July 11, 2026

Today was a walk around Venice day. Rebecca and I have a good feeling for Venice as we spent a month there two years ago.

Venice (and all of Europe) experienced high temperatures.

Our friends opted to explore Venice proper today. Rebecca and I took the boat to one of my favorite places in the area, the colorful island of Burano.

Burano is an island in the Lagoon of Venice. It is located to the north of Venice, very near Torcello, and is famous for its lacemaking.

The island with about 4,000 inhabitants has a curious leaning bell tower that is visible from a distance.

Burano has become one of the most visited islands for its colourful houses. Every so often, it’s compulsory for the neighbours to paint the façades of their homes and they are not allowed to choose the colour but are notified of the specific shade according to where their residence is located. A legend is told that the houses were painted with bright and cheerful colours so that the sailors could see them on gloomy or foggy days.

When Rebecca and I returned to Venice, we walked toward our old neighborhood and tracked down our favorite pizza place for lunch.

After a very satisfying lunch, we did more exploring.

We hit a great steak house – Al Grille, for our last dinner there. The food was great.

Later, enjoying our last evening in Venice, the four of us headed over to St Marks square, passing a gondola parking lot and listening to the musicians in the evening square.

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Venice & Verona/ Monday, July 13, 2026

We checked out of our apartment around 10 AM and took a boat to the Venice airport to pick up a car for the remainder of our trip and headed to Verona. 1H /30M

On the way there, we became hungry for lunch and found it difficult to locate a good restaurant along the way. We discovered that our first choice was closed due to fire, so we continued along a rural route to Pianga to discover a place favored by locals – Osteria Ciccio. The food was good and priced for locals.

After lunch, we proceeded to our next apartment in Verona 19 via Dietro Lisone 1 Piano, Citta Antica 37121, for a brief two-night stay.

We parked in a nearby municipal lot.

City of Verona

We set out to do a bit of exploring.

I scored an embroidered Verona T-shirt for my travel collection at the local market.

The weather continued to be quite warm.