A day in Venice - that's the dream. We arose nice and early in the morning to bus it into the outskirts of the old city of Venice. Made up of over 150 islands joined by bridges and canals, we had to get the people mover (kind of like a monorail) into the main part of the city. You can't drive cars in or around the more historic part of Venice so we began our journey into St Marc's square on foot. It was a very long walk and our guide, Noddy, does walk very very fast. We stopped at a few key places along the way to take photos, the Da Vinci museum, the Academia gallery, the Academia bridge and finally into St Marc's Square.
It has been 7 long years since I have been to Venice but it was just as I remember... Except there were hardly any people. We were there quite early in the morning so there were very few tourists at this stage and the souvenir stall owners were just starting to set up. After a walk around last the Basilica, the Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs we headed over to take our gondola ride.
By this time a lot of other tour groups had starting rolling around so the gondola traffics on the canals was CRAZY. There were gondolas everywhere so the ride itself was very underwhelming. But of course, a gondola ride is something you just HAVE to do if you are in Venice. It was nice and relaxing and fun to do something like that with girls I have been getting to know the past week or so.
After our rides we went into a lace demonstration, lace and glass are two of the largest exported items in Venice. Noddy took us into a lace shop where the lovely ladies explained how lace is made, how intricate the process is and how long it takes to make one small item of Venetian lace. It was pretty amazing. They showed us a few items we could buy and I couldn't resist - I ended up with a beautiful lace tablecloth and, like almost every other girl on our tour, I bought a garter. Very very cool.
We really lucked out having Noddy as our tour leader! She goes above and beyond for all of us so that we can have the best possible time and do as much as we can. She offered to organise for those interested, a speedboating ride around Venice. OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING!!!!! We had to somehow climb down into these little speed boats that fit 11 people (it was more than a meter step down - I almost fell). Then we were off. It was faster than the gondolas and we went down the grand canal of Venice. It was just an awesome experience. Our driver and one of the other drivers kept throwing water at each other and trying to splash up water on each other's boats - so we did end up a little wet. We got out onto the lagoon and picked up our speed - so much fun. I'm very glad I was able to do that!
We heading straight in after our boat ride to see a glass blowing demonstration. A Venetian glass blower was able to make an intricate and beautiful horse in under 5 minutes... It was crazy!! They explained that the material they moulded from was over 2000 degrees. Once he was done he placed it on a bench and the lady explaining placed a piece of newspaper on it and it immediately caught fire. THATS HOT! We walked through the attached shop that had some of the most beautiful glass I have ever seen. But no, I didn't buy any.
By this time it was about 1pm so it was LUNCHTIME! We headed into a cute little restaurant a few streets back from the square and had some delicious pizza and pasta and possibly the most expensive cokes I have ever had... €5.50... WOAH. But it was delicious.
We did a lot of touristy souvenir shopping, bargain hunting and bartering, I was able to practice some of the basic Italian I knew. Some of the girls bought gorgeous oil paintings of the city. I had already bought some of those in Paris and I am fast running out of room in my suitcase. Alysha and Chelsea wanted to head up to the top of the bell tower - the highest point in Venice so the other girls we were with and I headed for some gelato.
By the time we finished we realised the Topdeck bus was leaving at 4pm to take people home. We rushed to take the vaparatto (water taxi) to the Piazza del Roma and get the people mover back to the bus... The vaparatto took about 40 minutes so ended up being late... We took a cab back between 6 of us it was super cheap. We spent the rest of the arvo swimming and soaking up the sun before our dinner in the camping round restaurant.
We re-packed and re-organised our suitcases trying to fit in all of our new purchases... Which was a lot harder than it sounds. Then there was a pool party for the Topdeckers in the pool area until late - we went for a famous Topdeck cocktail (tastes like cordial but potent like absinthe) but we headed back to our room for another cold shower then bed.
If I have learned anything from this time in Venice it would definitely be that I hate cold showers more than anything in the world. THEY ARE NOT FUN.
It's been wonderful Venice ❤️
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