Amazing Venice
Trip Start
May 15, 2010
1
51
64
Trip End
Aug 25, 2010
Where I stayed
Venice, Veneto, Italy
Thursday, July 22, 2010
We took the courtesy bus from the campground into the town – love these campgrounds with courtesy buses, bars, restaurants and markets – Australian camping has a long way to come, definitely no roughing it for us!
We spent the day wandering around the alleys and exploring the shops and museums. I had been convinced by someone and for the life of me I can't remember who that Venice smelt.... but we didn’t smell a thing it was actually really pleasant with the sea breeze and sunshine. I was actually surprised that the water flowed through the canals so quickly.
I have now seen it all in regards to dog owners! We have seen a dog wearing undies in the Cinque Terra but today took the cake! So this lady was walking her Schnauzer it stopped to do a poo – she took out a tissue picked up the poo and then through it in the canal! She definitely was a resident as she then stopped and talked to the guy who owned the coffee shop next door. I think I was surprised she chucked it in the canal, wouldn’t you try and make an effort not to pollute the canal if that is the reason most tourist come to Venice?
Breakfast today cost almost as much as our normal lunches – 11 Euros for 2 coffees and 2 croissants.... they weren’t even that good! This place definitely knows how to attack the hip pocket.
Walking around without actually knowing where you are going to a good way to find hidden gems – no expectations! We found a small little shop where a guy made handmade paper-mache carnival masks. The amount of effort that goes into the production of a mask is amazing (I am not talking about the mass produced ones available on every single tourist stand). After I had selected a purchase I went to pay by card, here no cards! So Andrew went to find an ATM. 45 minutes later he finally retuned – apparently ATMs are hard to find in Venice.... We worked out he simply walked the wrong way because when we continued on our wander we ended up finding over 5 within 500 meters of the shop! Oops!
We found a Leonard Di Vinci Museum where you could try out the contraptions he had designed in a number of his manuscripts. This place was awesome – not only could you see his deigns you actually got to play with them! The one thing that annoys me about Rough Guide – is that it focuses on art, art and more art! Dear Rough Guide, if you could expand your horizons a little on what you write up it would be great because there is only so much culture you can do and it would be tops if you could include places like the Leonard Di Vinci Museum which has art in it anyway... Also, your proof reading needs to improve as some countries mentioned in sections use old currency even though they have moved to Euros long before you published this edition!
We tried to get a gondola ride but couldn’t work out who was actually in charge as the staff were focused on pushing tour groups through and not really worried about "new"/”additional” clients! So we took a ferry ride instead – probably better value than a gondola as we went all the way from the big park to the bus station for 6.5 Euros each!
I have just finished reading “War Reporting for Cowards” by Chris Ayres – this book is fabulous a funny and entertaining view on war and being a reporter.
