Venice, Rome and Bologna

---

We have spent the last five days in Italy, starting off with two days in Venice. Being the only pedestrian city in the world, we had to park our car outside Venice and catch a ferry boat to our hotel. It is such an amazing experience to ride through the tiny streets and under quant bridges through the city.




For all its beauty and unique atmosphere, the downside to Venice is the high expense (not unlike the rest of Italy). For example a McDonald's meal (small size) costs 7.95 euros, which is approximately $AU16! Also on our first night in Venice we had dinner at a really nice traditional Italian restaurant and thought nothing of having a small dinner roll from the basket on the table. On receiving the bill, we found that we had been charged $AU20 for three very tiny bread rolls!

On a whole, I would definitely visit Venice again! It has a very unique culture of it's own, partly because of it's isolated nature and the fact it feels very authentic compared to the other parts of Italy I experienced.

We then spent the next two days in Rome, which was a very different city to what I had expected. Traveling to the heart of Rome from our hotel by metro, we immediately noticed how unclean the transportation system was compared to our experiences in other countries. Once arriving at Rome I was overwhelmed by how busy and chaotic the city was, with pedestrians and traffic at a constant battle with each other. From the main station 'termini' we walked to the Colosseum, which was a truly spectacular ruins. Apart from the scammers dressed up in Gladiator costumes trying to get you to take a photo with them (for of course, a hidden charge), we really enjoyed seeing this famous sight.



Other highlights from Rome included seeing the Spanish steps and the streets of high-end fashion that led from it and the Trevi fountain. The fountain was my personal favorite, with the strong youth-driven scene and the atmosphere of romance, I really enjoyed sitting by the fountain and eating a gelatissimo.




Overall I was impressed and enjoyed visiting the many ruins that Rome had to offer, as for the shopping and city atmosphere - I didn't enjoy the city as much as the others we have visited. After Rome, we had a short stopover in Bologna, the Italian city famous for creating bolognese sauce, tortellini and mortadella. The next day we then began the drive to Switzerland.

---