Voyage to Venice

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Our blog about Venice is a bit overdue, seeing as we were there almost two weeks ago. Anyways, we arrived in Venice exhausted after 24 hours of travel. Night train through Italy was not exactly comfortable. Our train smelled like a chicken coop and the people were loud and beligerent. We took shifts sleeping and had several sketchy looking men try to enter our cabin at odd hours of the night. But we made it.

Venice, at first, was like a scene out of a movie. People getting around by boat and beautiful bridges. We had our first encounter with Italian flirting; a man barked at us like a yappy little dog as we walked by, fresh off the train.

When we got to our Camping Fusina we were very happy with it. It was a secluded little village with a dock that stretched into the ocean, giving us a beautiful view of the city, especially at nighttime. Sitting out here with an oversized bottle of Pesca Ice Tea was our nightly routine. Also, the bar at night played live music which was fantastic. It was the same guy every night, but his voice was enough to make any girl swoon! However, the huge crowds of obnoxious Contiki travellers got a bit annoying by the end of our trip here.

We spent four days in Venice, visiting the city twice and taking a boat tour out to the islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello. The heat was unbelievable. It was nearly 40 degrees Celsius everyday and the cost of everything in Venice was horrendous. Gondola rides were 80-90 Euros/person for 25 minutes - needless to say, we watched them from the bridges. One day we paid $10 CAN for a bag of tortilla chips! Also, sitting down meant paying double and if you had to go to the bathrroom, again, you had to make sure you had change on you. However, for those who can afford to shop, Venice is like a dream. Every designer name brand you could think of lined the streets and the masks were breathtaking. On our day trip to the three islands, we got to watch the traditional making of glass figurines and vases and the ferry rides alone were worth the trip.

To wrap it up: Be warned if you go to Venice, old men wearing speedos is the norm here and they show it off with pride!

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