Gondola riding in Venice

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After driving through the Italian alps for several hours from Innsbruck, we arrived at the beautiful city of Venice around 2pm. With conditions incredibly cold and windy at the grand canal, we headed straight to St Marks Basilica, a very impressive 11th century church in the very busy but grand St Marks Square. St Marks Square is full of pigeons which can be quite an annoyance though. We then walked the streets of Venice which had some amazing little buildings and of course, all the canals. We saw a glass blowing demonstration and tried some gelati. It seemed like every second shop was either a glass store or a gelati shop

We then took the obligatory gondola ride - not quite the romantic experience I had expected, mostly due to the gondalier spending most of the time speaking loudly on his mobile phone and making a couple of toilet break stops where I am sure he was polluting the canal! The canals were spectacular though and we went under many beautiful bridges as we weaved our way through the intricate canal system.

The food though in Venice was great and a nice risotto was a satisfying end to our short visit in Venice.

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Photos

St Marks Square
Way too many pigeons!