The four of us occupied the whole cabin in the train when we were still in Austria. A cabin had six seats; three seats in a row facing opposite the other three seats. All the seats could slide down so that we could lay down to sleep. Not too comfortable, but cheaper than buying a ticket with sleeper.

We read that night trains are dangerous and there are thieves that might spray sleeping gas in night trains. Thus, we were extra careful with our belongings; we slept on our bags. Our friend even chained our cabin door so that we could all have a peace of mind that no one would come in and took our things when we were asleep!

Around midnight, there were suddenly a lot of passengers boarding the night train. We thought they were Italians. Then came a loud knock. It was an Italian police officer. He wanted to check our passports as we were entering Italy. My friend quickly unchained the door for him.

Magical Venice!

We disembarked the night train at Venezia Mestre station at the Italian mainland and took another train to cross the Venetian Lagoon to central Venice.

The Grand Canal is the most important canal in Venice that forms a major water-traffic corridor to the city. A canoeing competition was going on, so it was not possible for us to take a boat ride to Piazza San Marco or St Mark’s Square in English. We had to walked through the mysterious alleyways to find our way there, giving us the opportunity to explore every nook and canny.

The alleys are brimming with small artisan shops for every visitor to shop for the exquisite souvenirs like the Venetian masks. We entered one such shop and had some fun trying out the Venetian masks.

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