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Published: April 17th 2007
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Venice
Our first stop in Italy was Venice, which we spent 3 nights. We found out quickly that 3 nights is all you need in Venice. Not just because it’s very expensive but also because Venice is relatively small.
We arrived in Venice late afternoon and as our flight was on time we had lots of energy to walk around following dodgy directions to our hotel with a big backpack on our backs (I know we had better get used to this). After walking around in circles for a bit we found our hotel. As we were eager to see the city we only gave ourselves 5 minutes to freshen up and then we off catching the 10-minute bus into the city.
Our first impression of Venice is that it’s a very pretty city. Every time you look after walking over a bridge or turning a corner you want to pull out your camera and take a picture. We did do this at first but soon got over it.
The first night we were really hungry and I didn’t have the patience after the trek to the hotel to be picky about where we ate. We
slice of pizza please
only 2.50 euros- bargain! therefore chose the first restaurant that did Pizzas for a reasonable price. However we quickly paid the price for this as they stung us for the drinks- 7 Euros for a pint of beer!!! Well everyone who knows Sonny, knows that he loves his beer but not enough to be ripped off. As you can imagine we didn’t hang around at this restaurant. We strolled through the city for a bit longer hoping that we would come across cheaper beers. We did but nothing significantly cheaper so we decided to retire to our beds and have an early nights sleep.
On our second day we decided to try out the waterbuses, as a gondola ride certainly wasn’t in our budget! However the waterbus is still not cheap as it cost us 25 euros each for a 2 day pass. After seeing the major sites we decided to do what Sonny and I do best in a city- walk and get lost! It’s the best way of getting a feel for the city especially Venice, it was nice to see the locals for a change instead of seeing Japanese people taking pictures every 2 seconds. Yes we enjoyed getting lost-
the highlight was when we found this really cool shop when Sonny went into to get a beer, half of the shop was full of barrels of wine and the locals were just popping in with empty plastic bottles and paying for it to get topped up with the wine of their choice- prices ranged from 1 to 2 euros for a 1 litre of wine. Shame that we didn’t have an empty bottle on us because there was no chance of us finding that place again!!
On our last day we caught the waterbus out to the nearby islands Murano and Burano. First Island we went to was Murano, this is where they make the glassware. As all there was to do was walk around the shops we decided to invest in a piece, so we could have a classy ornament that would remind us of Venice. After much deliberation we chose a Pelican which we named Pete. Unfortunately he’s all wrapped up and packed to go to Australia so no photos. But take my word for it he’s lovely, set us back 36 Euros but worth every penny!
Next stop Burano. This island is famous for
the coloured houses. As you can see from the photo’s it’s a very beautiful village. Unfortunately we didn’t have that long there but had enough time just to walk around and take a few pics.
This is where our tale of Venice ends. I would certainly recommend Venice to anyone. Some people that we’ve talked to are put off by going here because they’ve heard that it’s dirty and very expensive. Personally we didn’t think that Venice was any dirtier than any other city we’ve been to, occasionally you do the get the odd whiff but that’s about it. I think the beauty of the place is enough to disregard it anyway. As for the expensive, I’m the biggest cheap skate there is going so we managed to find ways around the expense. For example buying take away beers and sitting on the balcony in the hotel before going out and also eating at a really cool place called Breke. This is a self-service restaurant so the prices are cheap but the food was still lovely. We had 2 big bowls of pasta, two rolls of bread, half a bottle of wine and a beer all for 14 Euros.
Now that’s a bargain especially in Venice. Also there are takeaway pizza shops where you can get a big slice of pizza for 2.50euros but you can only get so much pizza in a day.
Well enough of Venice, next stop Rome ….
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laura
non-member comment
whiff whiff
hummmmm know what you mean about the odd whiff kathy, i get one everytime we're in the same room! ;) cant wait for the next instalment!