Florence, Venice & the UK

Covid-19 has finally subsided and Zethy and I went to Italy for our long postponed honeymoon, specifically Florence and Venice. I’ve been wanting to go there ever since playing Assassin’s Creed 2 back in 2009. Welcome back to another crazy trip of ours.

Actually our honeymoon trip to Italy also doubled as a trip to attend Zethy’s master’s graduation ceremony in Bristol. So our first stop was London, to leave our big luggages and move onto smaller luggage to bring to Italy. We landed on London Heathrow and took a bus to Colchester where we’ll leave our bags and get a quick shower before going to London Stansted for our RyanAir flight to Venice.

After getting onto the bus to London Stansted, it made a stop at one of the towns called Braintree to pick up more passengers. And the bus broke down. Apparently the doors for the luggage cannot be closed securely. I was very anxiously waiting, wondering if we’ll make it to the airport in time. After almost an hour, it was resolved and we’re back on our way to the airport.

After reaching the airport, the check-in queue was so long and there wasn’t much time. But we made it just in time.

Our flight was scheduled for 7:25 PM, but after passing through security, we noticed on the information board that it had been delayed, with no departure time or gate assigned. We grabbed something to eat and waited patiently. After a couple hours, we heard an announcement, our flight will be departing at 9:50 PM. All passengers en route to Venice including us rushed to the assigned gate.

Funnily enough, it wasn’t a RyanAir aircraft on the gate - it was a Lauda aircraft, an airline I’ve never heard before, with a very uninspiring logo. This wasn’t a codeshare flight by the way. Whatever, we boarded the plane and waited for takeoff.

But the plane never moved. Then an announcement came from the pilot telling that there are technical issues with the plane and need everyone to disembark the plane. What?

Everyone, disgruntled, disembarked the plane and waited at the gate for further notice. We’ve already had enough. I should’ve been on the hotel bed by now. The staff at the gate kept reassuring us that they’re working on it. Before the clock strikes midnight, the staff told us we can’t wait at the gate and had to get back to the main building and so everyone did.

As we waited in front of the closed shops, news broke out from other passengers - we’re not flying that night. United by our tragedy, everyone went out and rushed to the ticketing counter outside. It was almost 1AM at the time with no concrete conclusion on what’s happening to all of us. Regardless, we all demanded a hotel for the night but they couldn’t cater everyone and prioritized families with small kids. Some who already gave up left the airport to the remaining hotel rooms they could find. We stayed to know our fate.

Then, in two languages, the ticketing staff made an announcement. We will fly the next morning, but no specified departure time. He told us to just show up the next morning and wait for further notice. My hotel booking that night is burned. What a shitshow.

It was almost 3AM at the time. We went to find a spot to camp. To my surprise, there were hundreds of people coming in at 3AM to camp there. Turns out London Stansted is common for passengers camping there for their early morning flights. It was an experience.

At 6AM, we woke up and went through security again. With no flight in sight, we continued sleeping inside, taking turns to hear any announcement about our flight. Around 8AM, an announcement was made. We’re finally going to Venice. We got to the gate and guess what we saw? It’s the same godforsaken Lauda aircraft again.

We arrived at Venice Marco Polo Airport and took a bus to our hotel near the Venice (mainland) train station. By the time we got there, it was already 12 PM - checkout time. I explained our difficult situation to the front desk and begged them to let us in to shower and change. Thankfully, they were kind enough not to charge me for the room and only asked me to pay the €10 tax.

In 20 minutes, we were in and out. Because we have a bus to catch at 5PM to Florence, that means we only had few hours to spend in Venice. So got to the train station and off to Venice (island) we go.

We walked around the entire island, and I recognized all the places from Assassin’s Creed. Surprisingly there weren’t many tourists at the time since many countries didn’t allow travel yet so it was nice. We also stopped by for an authentic Italian pizza and gelato for lunch.

Before our bus arrived, we went back to our hotel to grab our bags. Our bus showed up on time and we were off to Florence.

Inside the bus, I looked at the Flixbus app where we bought our bus tickets to see our next bus from Florence to Venice later. It was a two-leg journey, from Florence to Bologna, and from Bologna to Venice. The second leg was labeled "Not confirmed". What does that even mean? I don’t want to risk taking the bus to Bologna and the bus to Venice doesn’t show up and get stuck at Bologna at 3AM and miss our flight back to London that morning. So I decided to buy a direct train ticket from Florence to Venice. It’s slightly more expensive, we’ll burn our bus tickets, but at least there’s peace of mind.

Three hours later, we reached Florence. We walked to our hotel and were welcomed with a heartwarming surprise - our room was upgraded. The room we got was huge. We couldn’t see it yet that night but the dome of Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was visible from our room. We made instant noodles and went to sleep afterwards.

The next day we started our day with a hearty breakfast at the hotel. Then we hurried to the location where we were scheduled to join a pasta-making class. Our instructor, Irene, taught us how to make two types of pasta. The first was pesto lasagna, where we rolled out the dough to create the lasagna sheets. The second was tortellini. We were joined by another family from Houston, and after our pasta was cooked, we all enjoyed a delightful early lunch together.

Our next activity was a walking tour. We were supposed to meet in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, but we arrived a bit late and, unfortunately, must have missed it. Nonetheless I was captivated by the view of that famous building. All the memories from Assassin’s Creed 2 came back. I could vividly remember climbing the tower and doing the leap of faith. The walking tour we missed was meant to include skip-the-line access to the cathedral. Since we were already there, we decided to queue patiently to go inside.

Afterwards, we started searching for another walking tour available that day and found one. The tour starts at Piazza di San Lorenzo so we immediately walked there.

The tour guide was excellent - we couldn’t have asked for a better one. Instead of giving textbook history lessons, he led us through the many streets and dark alleys of Florence, sharing the city’s story from a different lens, highlighting the small details hidden throughout city. The whole city is known to be an open museum after all. Why are there doors on the second floor of a tall tower? What’s the meaning behind the coat of arms on street corners? Each answer unraveled the socioeconomic structures and systems of the medieval era, offering a fascinating glimpse into the past.

By the end of the tour, we were pretty far from our hotel and we decided to take the bus. I was amazed at how it manages to navigate the narrow streets of Florence. We stopped by to buy dinner and some souvenirs. After a long day, we took a nap before waking back up to catch our train that night.

I woke up at 1:50 AM. But our train was at 2:00 AM. That’s right. 2:00 AM. I totally forgot to set an alarm. We’re fucked. We’re never going to make it to Venice for our morning flight back. We can’t afford not to get back. Zethy’s master’s graduation ceremony was the day afterwards. Whatever it was, we had to get to British soil by the next day.

There was no time to lose. I immediately scoured through the internet for all trains, buses and flights and ultimately landed on a British Airways flight from Florence that morning.

After checking out, we took a train from in front of our hotel that goes directly to the airport. How convenient. And the best part is the flight lands in London City Airport. Never would I thought I’ll ever be landing in London City Airport given how rare it is.

We made it safely to British soil. And we made it to Zethy’s master’s graduation. Yeay. We spent the next few days in Bristol, Colchester and London.

Fast forward to our last day, we arrived at the airport three hours early—plenty of time to get everything sorted and make our way to the gate at a leisurely pace. But on that day, London Heathrow’s baggage handling system broke down. I kid you not the airport staffs were carrying luggages on horse carts sans the horse. To make matters worse, there was a shortage of staff to handle security due to the recent easing of COVID restrictions. We ended up queuing for almost three hours, from the moment we finished checking in until we were finally allowed to skip the line because our flight was about to depart. The queue even started from outside the airport, zigzagging through any available floor space inside the airport, and continue up the second floor. It was crazy.