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Today we caught the train to Venice and had a full day there which was magical. We were a little sceptical as we’re heard some not so great things about Venice and it was also a rainy day. Luckily the rain cleared up and it turned out to be a wonderful day! It was a perfect time to go as it wasn’t hot enough for the tourists, mozzies and bad smells we had heard of. We went on a walking tour led by a local guide and saw the key sights -bridge of Sigh’s, Rialto bridge, the grand canal, piazza San Marco and palazzo Ducale. Our tour guide was informative but a bit repetitive! We were looking forward to exploring by ourselves! We did get to do this after the tour and had fun getting lost in amongst the markets and alleyways which weave around the canals. The markets were full of beautiful glassware and amazing masks. It would be so much fun to be here during the Venice carnival (not for the debauchery of course)!
We saw a movie in the making called “The Tourist” which stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. The girls from our tour (including Lysh)
spent a while waiting to catch a glimpse of Johnny, but unfortunately for them he wasn’t on set. We had given up trying to spot a star but when we came back past we saw Angelina filming a scene! There were a few good vantage spots and we saw the short scene being redone about 10 times and got a good view of Angelina. She looked quite normal! We hope the scene makes it to production!!!! Feeling a bit star struck we left and climbed the tower opposite the Basilica which gave us a great view over Venice. We also went into the Basilica di San Marco which was beautiful and had an amazing amount of gold tiling/pieces.
In the afternoon we met up with the group again and watched a glass blowing demonstration. The man made a vase and cat in no time at all! The man doing all the talking was trying to be funny and was flirting with Richie! We then went to a lace demonstration which was really interesting. There is no fabric at all in the pieces and generally 7 woman will work on the finished product, each specialising in a specific stitch, amazing!
No wonder it costs so much! It is a bit of a dying art however the government has recognised this and is supporting the lace school we visited. They will only teach Venetian girls the art!
Our next touristy thing to do was a gondola ride! We had been looking forward to this all day! We shared this with 2 other contiki couples and had lots of fun! We were told we had to kiss under every bridge - so as you could imagine, there was a lot of kissing!! We enjoyed a bottle of Prosecco, an Italian champagne during the ride. The view along the canals was great, however the gondola man decided to put the heavy weights, Richie and another guy on the gondola on the same side which made boat lean a lot and we thought we were going to go into the dirty water! It was more exciting than romantic!! It’s quite expensive to get a trip by yourselves, so it was great to share it with our new contiki friends!
For dinner Richie and I opted to do our own thing. We got some takeaway pizza and enjoyed it with a bottle of
Chianti we’d got at the Tuscan winery. We found the perfect spot by the grand canal near the bridge where Angelina was filming earlier in the day. We got some strange looks but it was a perfect dinner! It really capped off an amazing day until...Richie lost his wallet! We’d met up with the group and got the ferry back to the train station. When Richie went to get the tickets out he realised his wallet was gone! Luckily for us Ange lent us some money to get the ferry back to the city to try and find it. It was a very stressful ½ hour ferry ride back!! We made a dash to where we boarded the boat, no luck, ran to the last gelato/cafe place we were at and luckily enough, it was there! Richie thinks he left it on the counter when talking football (soccer of course) with the barman and a local. Phew!!! Richie was so relieved to have found it but then realised he’d lost his wife in the process! Lysh had run to a different gelato place and was upset to find it closed. Luckily it was the wrong one and we found each
other in San Marco square and did a happy dance to the orchestra which was playing! We got the ferry and train back to hotel and made it back about midnight. It just added a little extra adventure to our day and we got to see more of Venice at night! Since then I have been asking Richie every 5 minutes if he has everything!
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