Day One and Two: October 22 and 23. Travel from Portland, OR to JFK, then JFK to Venice Marco Polo.
I began my solo adventure in Venice, I flew on Delta Airlines, and it was a fairly easy route, with a layover at JFK.
I stayed 3 nights in Venice pre-tour and took an easy train ride to Padua a day before the tour started. I suggest that if you have the luxury of some extra time, to spend a few days somewhere before the tour begins. I chose Venice because I had been there before and wanted to see some off the beaten track places I missed the first time around, and because of the ease of getting to Pauda from Venice by train.
I arrived from Marco Polo airport by bus to Piazzle Roma, which was an adventure in itself. Get your ticket inside the airport at the ticket kiosk, but be sure to validate it in the "yellow" ticket machine by where the bus is parked before entering the bus.
It was raining the morning I arrived on October 23rd, but I was fortunate that my hotel allowed me to check in at 10:30 am upon arrival in Venice. I stayed at Hotel Principe, near the train station and Piazzle Roma (bus station), it was a bit of a busy area, but walkable to some of the places I wanted to visit. The hotel was comfortable and had a good breakfast, a grocery store just a few shops down the way, the Cannaregio neighborhood close by and near a vaporetto stop, which I used on one occasion to get back from a day of walking around Venice and getting "lost".
I rested up, got some coffee and a snack, showered and headed over to the grocery store for some food and drinks for dinner. I just stayed in and soaked up the atmosphere out my hotel window my first night.
It rained all night, but WOW, I woke up to beautiful sunshine and clear blue skies the next morning. This would later prove to be a theme for this tour; clear blue skies and perfect autumn weather.