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Published: November 20th 2007
Venice
Postcard perfectHey again guys, time to catch up on all our recent travel adventures...
Venice It's good to be back in Italy, especially because the weather is so much nicer than rainy eastern Europe. Although, saying that, we arrived in Venice in the pouring rain. It was absolutely beautiful the following day, though, when the weather cleared up. But in the rain, armed with crappy directions to our hostel (clearly written by non-English speakers who have never tried to find their own hostel), it took us over an hour find the place. It didn't help that we had to cross three bridges and walk for 20 minutes with our bags, and that the street numbers make no sense to anyone but Venecians. But we found it in the end, only because someone else who was staying at the same hostel saw us looking lost and pointed us in the right direction. And it turned out to be a really good hostel - fun and social. They provided dinner every night, instead of the standard breakfast normally provided at hostels (bread, jam and coffee). This gave everyone staying there the opportunity to meet and chat so it was really fun!
Venice
Main square We went for a walk in the rain to see the main square, St Marco's square, and it was beautiful despite the weather. We didn't have a map, but there is no need for one in Venice, because you can just follow the yellow signs on every main corner to the sights. We stopped in at Bar Tiziano for an Italian hot chocolate, nice and thick and hot, mmmm, before heading back to the hostel for our free dinner (pasta!).
The following day we explored Venice thoroughly, including the Bridge of Sighs, the Rialto bridge, the markets and St Marco's Basilica. The main square was filled with tourists and dirty pidgeons, and silly people with dirty pidgeons on their heads having photos taken. Eww! We did lots of shopping and ate pizza for lunch. It was Halloween, and we had a group of Americans at our hostel, so of course they led the Halloween celebrations. Nobody had costumes, but creativity levels were high and one American girl wore the Australian flag as her costume... It was all in good humour, so we weren't offended!
Verona The next day we caught a train to Verona, accompanied by a
Venice
On the bridge of our fab hostel Canadian girl who we met at the hostel and was going just for the day. We checked into our hostel, which should be renamed a concentration camp, because it had a whole page of rules, communal showers, separate male and female dorms and you weren't allowed to be in your room between 9 am and 5 pm. It was crazy! Thank god we were only staying for 1 night. We saw Juliet's house and balcony, and all the graffiti and love notes covering the entry were amazing. Before we left for Milan the next morning, we stopped at a local deli to buy some food for lunch. The shop was full of italian women, and when Stephen spoke Italian to the shopkeeper, all their heads swivelled to listen. One lady even said "Bravo!". Then they bombarded him with questions to find out why he spoke Italian. It was so funny!
Milan So we caught the train to Milano, arriving in the early afternoon, and checked into our hotel. It had a TV in the room and we were so happy! We met up with my boss's daughter, who married an Italian and now lives in Milan. She works
in a jewellery shop so we went there to see her. The following day we saw the few sights that Milan has to offer, namely the Duomo and main square, La Scala Opera House and the Golden Triangle lined with designer label shops. I wanted to see the Last Supper but you have to reserve 2 weeks ahead and we didn't know, so I missed out. I bought a postcard and admired it in front of the church though, I guess that sort of counts.
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