Northern Italy Trip: part 1 - Venice

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After quite a few months of working we decided it was time to use up some annual leave and hit the continent again.

After having so much fun last time we were in Italy, we thought we'd go back again and see some other parts of the country! So we started our 10 day trip in the north of Italy in Venice, quite fitting for the anniversary of our engagement 😊

We experienced a few train problems on our whole trip, the first and biggest was missing our stop on our way to Venice from Treviso and therefore being delayed by about 3 hours! I blame Adam but he tends to disagree. The debate continues!

So in the end we arrived at about noon, and in the glorious sunshine we headed off to do some exploring. Our hotel ended up being quite close to the main square, Piazza San Marco, which was really handy so that was our first stop. Not that I'd put much thought into what the main square would be like, but for some reason it wasn't what I was expecting. I think because it is so famous, I'd expected something more. But it was sort of just a big open space - but that might be the definition of a town square! However it was pretty impressive, all the buildings that surrounded it and the way it led out to the water. We took our time wandering around it, taking photos and checking out the buildings such as the Basillica di San Marco and the Campanile. It's a good place for people watching, but bad place if you're like me and hate pigeons! Ha ha. They were everywhere! Why do people travel the world and just take photos with pigeons?! Two words for you people - BIRD FLU.

Anyway.. Being the peak summer season there were people in Venice EVERYWHERE! So once we'd done the walk around the square and decided against going into any buildings (hours waiting in line didn't sound so cool especially in the heat), so we decided it was time to get lost in the streets of Venice. We'd been told by lots of people that Venice was the sort of place you need to get lost in, so that's just what we did. We spent the afternoon wandering all the little back streets and canals and just explored the place. Oh and we managed to fit in some gelati as well! It was a tough job but managed ok. I felt like we walked forever and I'm sure we didn't cover half of it!

We also decided since we were in Venice we had to do one key thing - take a gondola ride. So after some haggling with various providers we had got a decent price for an extensive and relaxing trip around, in and out of the smaller canals and along the Grand Canal. We took our ride late in the afternoon which made for a beautiful trip and one not too hot either.

Obviously as you can see, the photos kind of show what I mean, and look better than I could try to describe so check them out to get the idea.

Part 2 - Florence and the Tuscany region...

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Photos

Venice, Italy
Everything you expect it to be