The Night Train to Venice

There was a bottle of champaign waiting for us in our sleeper cabin, very much like a ship's cabin. Everything was compact and efficient, from our tiny bathroom to the seats that folded down into one of our bunks, each with a warm duvet. At 8:45pm, from our table by the window, we watched the train pull out of the station, where we had arrived earlier that day. So our whirlwind Vienna in a day ended on a train speeding through Austria and the alps to awaken in Italy. We had breakfast watching the Italian countryside fields of color open onto the lagoon of Venice. We crossed on a long narrow bridge and at 8:30am found ourselves on the Grand Canal.