Venice for 3 days

Wednesday 29th August 2007 – Venice Italy
This morning we awoke early, disembarked with our 6 bags, and caught a water taxi to our new home for the next 3 days which was the Great Western Cavelleto. The water taxi was supposed to take us right to the water way at the steps of our hotel but unfortunately it was low tide. This meant that it could only drop us a couple of blocks (canals) away and we then had to walk along narrow cobblestoned streets, over two bridges to get to the Great Western. This we did and arrived in our little room which rocked, moved, sloped to the right and overlooked the main meeting place of the gondolas. Very romantic. Settled in and met up with Irish friends in St Marks Square, and we all went back to our hotel for a cappuccino. We all then set off to explore Venice as their flight did not leave until 9pm that night for Dublin. The boys found a local tavern, had a few beers while the ladies went shopping. We all met up for lunch of pizza and lasagne and set of for the Rialto Bridge. This was the first bridge built over the Grand Canal with the original wooden bridge (15th century) being destroyed by fire. It was a very hot day so another beer was consumed. We all decided to have a Gondolo ride which was $100 euro for 6 people for 30 minutes. We went past the place were Marco Polo was born and other interesting sites. Paul had been told by Tim that he had to take me on a romantic gondola trip, complete with a red rose but this did not entirely eventuate, although the gondola ride was great fun!! Said goodbye to our Irish friends, went back to our hotel, wrote up some more postcards and went out for dinner (not very nice and cost $60 euros) = $A100:00. Shops open till 9:30pm so Pam had some more fun!!
Thursday 30th August 2007 – Venice Italy
Today we awoke late and had breakfast at 9.30am. Our life at the moment seems to fit this Mediterranean lifestyle of waking late and eating late and bed late. In fact it is 11.00pm and we have just got back from a beautiful meal at the “Ristorante La Terrazza” which was a short walk from our hotel. We had seafood and it was delicious. There was a man playing the piano and we were sitting right next to one of the canals and it was very romantic. After breakfast this morning, Pam decided to do a bit of shopping and Paul stayed in the room doing some work on the computer. It started to rain quite heavily (11.30) and about half an hour later Pam arrived back and she said there was water everywhere and St Marks Square was flooded and in places the water was up to her knees. The Venetians took this as normal and some shops closed and put up water barriers, others served you as you stood ankle deep in water. We had a tour planned at 2.00pm and to get to it we needed to go through St. Marks which was still ankle deep in water. Paul had his shorts and sandals on but Pam had shoes and long pants. Off came the shoes and bare feet and pants rolled up and off we headed. (Pam was told that the locals never go bare foot because of the pigeon poo in St. Marks in particular.) The first part of the tour was a walking tour of Venice including St. Mark’s Basilica (11TH Century) where the remains of the apostle St. Mark are reported to be buried. As this internment happened some 700 years after his death, there could be some doubt but who lets the facts stand in the way of a good story. The tour guide pointed out some very interesting facts about the formation of Venice including how the place was created (reclamation), governed by the Doges (pronounced Doweger) and the Aristocrats and some facts about the Doges palace, the clock tower (1496) and the bell tower (Built in the 9th Century but rebuilt with the same bricks as exact replica after its collapsed in 1902) and the Bridge of Sighs (so-called because the condemned people were led over this bridge and were reported to take there last look at the world and their relatives as they were led over it and gave out a big “sigh”). She also explained Napoleons’ influence as a conquer in the 17th century. All very interesting and such history. After the walking tour finished at the Rialto Bridge we walked back to St Marks Square to catch the Grand Canal tour. Our guide pointed out the different types of architecture and a number of famous people and buildings, including Elton John’s house. Can understand why he loved it here with all the costumes, masks and fancy dress! Many of the buildings dated back to the 12th century which is very hard for us to get our heads around, bearing in mind how young Australia is. Back to the hotel where we went out for a meal which was O.K. but still cost $70euros. Coffee is around A$6:00 a cup! Back to the hotel and watched some tennis and to pack our bags for an early start tomorrow.

Friday 31st August 2007 – Venice Italy

We awake in the morning to the pleasant chatter of the boys cleaning their gondola’s outside our window. There are currently 22 of them at this “stand” but there are many other similar “stands” around the city. Again a “Mediterranean” start to the day i.e. up late and long breakfast. Pam headed off to the shops and Paul to the local Post Office to investigate sending back a parcel to Australia as we are still overweight. Found out this was possible so a frantic SMS to recall Pam and back to the Hotel to sort out what we need to send. Italian Post offices open at 8.30 and close at 2.00 pm and when we arrived at 1.45pm they reminded us that we had to have all the documentation and parcel ready in 12 minutes as they close exactly at 2pm, which they did. Paid 50 Euro to send 10kg back to Australia and then Pammy did her usual trip to the shops, had dinner and back to our hotel to repack our bags ready for tomorrow.