Waving not drowning
I LIKE VENICE !!
It appeals to my sense of the ridiculous.
I'm guessing you could live here for a year and she would still not reveal all her secrets to you.
We arrived late yesterday afternoon and caught the waterbus along the Grand Canal into the 'city'.
Our apartment, which is actually just one big room leading straight onto the street, is within walking distance of everything. The only down side to our little apartment is that it does not have internet access - it was supposed to - I booked it online because it had net access - but it doesn't. So I'm back to paying for net cafes - 9 euros an hour - the most expensive we have ever seen!!
The BOSS and I spent two hours getting fabulously lost and discovering St Marks Square by accident. We didn't want to stop walking so we didn't sit down to eat - we just grabbed a kebab and kept on strolling.
I really do like it here. Pity we only have 1 1/2 days.
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Venice would be lovely if it weren't so full of bloody tourists !
We started the day with a visit to San Marco Church. It is the most elaborate one we have seen so far all decked out with gold mosaics. There was virtually no line so we got in fairly quickly and went up on the roof for the midday bell tolling. The Bell Tower, the Church and the Clock Tower all compete with each other and the "tolling" goes on much longer than it needs to. It is also the cue for every pigeon in the square to take flight and shit on all the tourists. You would think that the pigeons would not be scared of the bells after all this time - but something spooked them.
We then strolled up towards Rialto Bridge passing gazillions of boutique shops selling gorgeous masks for 'Festivale', not so gorgeous glass from Muranto and quite hideous ladies fashion.
The BOSS wanted to check out some contemporary art galleries, so we parted company and I explored the back streets away from the crowds.
We met up later for dinner, but as the weather was closing in, our plans to have an al fresco dinner by the water were abandoned. After walking around for 2 hours (we are damned fussy now about where we will eat) we finally found a suitable pizza joint with real Italian diners.
Unfortunately, they did not have any Tiramisu - and we just had to have tiramisu on our last ever night in Italy.
After another detailed search (wandering alleyways getting lost) we found another genuine Italian cafe which served real proper tiramisu and real proper coffee. Here we met a fabulously interesting New Yorker by the name of Brad who happened to be heading to all the places we had just been. We gave him the lowdown on places like Capri and he gave me his card so we could email him once we get to New York.
I love traveling !!
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