Italy - Part 5

Venice!

Okay, Venice was the last stop in Italy. We were there only for 2 nights mainly because the hotels were super expensive. Like 480 euros for 2 nights expensive.

That was mainly because we stayed in San Marco instead of staying the mainland. Now that was partially b/c it was going to be the last stop and b/c we didnt want to take the Vaporatti back and forth each day.

In the end, it all worked out. So we got to Venice by train from Florence. We had to double back to Florence from Lucca - which was not the end of the world as the train ride was fun. Anyhoo, got to Venice by train and took the vaporatti to San Marco. Our hotel was nutty and super cool (well, it had better be given the price!) Anyways, the hotel was decorated with Thai and Indonesian carpets and furniture and music was filtered in our room. It was fun.

So the first evening we set off on a treasure hunt to find glass bead jewellery. On the way we saw this church with exhibit on Violins and selling concert tix. As church attendance is low and Venice is trying to re-build its art scene there are classical concerts in churchs all over Venice. We got tix for the next night.

So from there we set out on foot to find glass beads. We decided to walk as taking a vaporatti would have been expensive as hell. So we walked towards the Accademia Bridge and towards the Peggy Guggenheim museum. And we found glass beads! (I forget the name of the artist, but he is pretty famous as his family has been doing this forever. We bought jewellery from his wife). I bought a necklace and earrings and bought earrings for my sister and sister-in-law. Man they were expensive. As soon was we paid for it - I had jelly legs. I couldn't walk. I got over that soon as the jewellery itself was exquisite.

After spending that much dough - we decided to get something to eat. We ran into this crazy place which had pizza but it had a really thick crust. Like about an inch and had all kinds of toppings. We looked at it and were kind of iffy...but we thought what the hell, we'll get a slice each and hope for the best. And it was delicious! I can remember where this place was, it was just a tiny place that catered to students but the food was delicious.

The next day we of course did San Marco. It is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. Highly recommended. The church is beautiful. There is also a treasury in there - go in there. It is fascinating. After San Marco, we went to the Peggy Guggenheim museum since we thought we shd do something different than the same art. I am glad we did that. It has some amazing collections, absolutely go see them.

Our last evening in Italy we went to the classical concert that we had tickets for. It was an awesome way to end our trip. What better way to say good bye to Italy by spending an evening listening to masters of classical music?

In my experience, Venice was crazy expensive. I mean everywhere we walked we saw Prada and Gucci stores. And everything costs so much. My favourite cities have to be Florence and Naples. Both are so beautiful. So lovely and full of live and character. I will always have good memories of them.

I have to say, I am glad we did Italy. Nothing disappointed us. Italy is a beautiful country - it truly is. There is so much culture, so much history and so much pride. This trip to Italy will always be with me. The people are so nice, so understanding, so proud and so helpful. The food - well, what can I say? Whatever I say will not do justice so, well, I am not going to say anything. Coffee - I am in love with Italian Caffe Latte.

If you are thinking of going to Italy and have doubts - I would say go. Go and do your own thing. Dont take those tours, you dont need to. Go and experience Italy for what it is.

And for godsake, try food that you wouldnt normally try! Go out of the tourist centres and order something different. We took this Italian to English book for food. So reading menus was pretty easy and we got to eat some delicious food that we would never have eaten otherwise. When looking for food we always went into restaurants with no English menus and that served us well.

Oh, I love Italy!