Bienvenuti a Venezia!

Venice has been wonderful! You have to love a city that you don't need a map to get around in.
We stayed in a "campsite" outside of town - we were just near the Marco Polo Airport and yeah, it was kind of like living in Coolaroo. Stacks of planes going over at ridiculous o'clock in the morning!! Met up with an old travel buddy (on the way from Salzburg to Venice) so it was good to have a mate to hang around with again. Had some friends she'd also palled up with while she was in St Johann so we all just kind of hung out together.

The first day dawned and we decided the first thing we *had* to do was have a gondola ride - lots of fun! We complained to our gondolier that we weren't getting our money's worth because he wasn't singing... He much preferred to coach me in my italian!! Also took a photo of him on the phone...while "driving" - surely somewhere, somehow, that has to be illegal?? The grand canal is absolutely gorgeous - lots of things you don't really think about that they do completely differently. EVERYTHING is done on the river. You're moving house? You do it with a gondola. Having renovations done on your place? In comes the gondola with all the gear on it. :D Hilarious! And mostly it's a case of the pushiest - not the biggest - wins. After that, we all kind of went our separate ways and went off and did whatever. We (my friend and I) went and checked out the Palazzo (palace) which was great, then vegged out at a cafe for a bit. This is also the *first* day of excellent weather that has continued through. I haven't worn socks since I hit Venice!! :D In the arvo we strolled 'round the streets, ate gelati and just enjoyed the local culture. We met up for dinner with everyone later in the day which was great. Sat in the middle of a square under umbrellas, then strolled back to the bus to get back to the campsite. Then I played pool for a bit (okay, until the wee hours of the morning!) and met some new folk.

Our second and final day in Venice, we bought a "hopper" ticket and then queued for St Mark's church. The hopper ticket (our own name for it - don't know what it's really called!) means for ... 12E? ... you can hop on and off any bus, train or ferry for the entire day - until 6am the next day I think? So hop we did!! :D There are quite a few islands off the coast of Venice (since Venice itself is made up of stacks of islands!) and each of the islands have a particular thing they are renowned for. Burano: lace, lace and more lace... There was also some really corny (for lack of a better word) lace, too. But the island itself is really quaint. Very small (you could probably walk all over it in about an hour), and is really a mini Venice! Little canals everywhere, very picturesque. Took a few photos. Murano: glass. They blow and colour glass into any and every shape!! They really do have some amazing stuff. I bought a ring and a necklace - the colours in them both make them look like they've got that gold paper or something inside them? Very pretty... I had been looking at rings and stuff when I was in the Czech republic, but nothing grabbed my eye and since they were pretty expensive I wanted to make sure I really liked it if I was going to justify buying it. In the end, I didn't get anything. So I figured paying 5E for a necklace and 7E for a ring on Murano was pretty good... :D Ah...next was Torcello: they have a church and that's pretty much it! Can't say I was impressed... the design looked like it had a really strong Spanish influence. Very dilapidated and run-down, though. A couple of the girls went inside and they said they found it really freaky... Statues of things being killed, snakes, etc. Very odd. Glad I didn't fork out the dosh. Strolled 'round outside and took photos, then back on the ferry again and back to Venice. Managed to get a ferry that took us straight to where the bus stopped, so saved our legs quite a bit!