I always do loads of planning before booking any trips. Not all plans work out. For the last trip thought it be a good idea to stay in Mestre, near Venice, Italy. Deliberately looked for a Hotel near the railway for ease of travel. Looked up 'trip advisor' which is a usually very good source. The 'Club' Hotel was supposed to be about 100 metres from the railway. Actual distance is 1.5 km and the Hotel itself doesn't claim to be 100m away. The Hotel however fails to mention the fact that it is completely isolated from the town and at night there is only one Trattoria or Cafe. I knew in advance that trattoria was poor as I had read several reviews saying to avoid. Run by an Italian cousin of Basil Fawlty, he is or was too busy laying out tables to take orders and he made us wait 30 minutes before coming over to take our order. Another 30 minutes our meals arrived. Not really bad but it all tasted like it was heated up and not fresh and of course expensive. Most evenings we avoided it except to buy an ice cream or a take away coffee.
I did walk one evening to see how long it took back to civilization. It did take about 30 minutes including a walk under a motorway through an underpass full of grafetti and unmentionable smells.
Another long held plan was to go to Trieste on Train and apart from visiting the sights go up to the hill above Trieste to Opicina via the Funicular Tram. Unfortunately following an expensive overhaul the tram has suffered numerous breakdowns and runaways so has been closed for repairs. It looks as if the money spent was mainly wasted and apparently the inferior cables installed have completely broken down. Instead we got a bus which took us along a similar route to Opicina. Even finding the tram initially was difficult as the sign posts point you in the wrong direction. Possibly 'they' do not want you to find it and hope to close it down due to lack of patronage. A local Bus driver was very helpful and told us where to go for the replacement bus service and told us to enjoy our holiday. So not all service workers went to the Basil Fawlty School of Charm. 'We' had a similar Tram in Ireland serving the Hill of Howth, it closed down before I was born as there was no money to renovate it despite it being a tourist attraction.
Extra. One week later after visit to Trieste the tramway re opened! Bad timing?
