Venice

I got to Venice at about 5:30 in the morning, just in time to get some beautiful pictures of me in the rising sun. There were not really many people around, and I had a walk for a few hours, covering the majority of the important stuff. It was absolutely gorgeous, and a great chance for me to relax and enjoy my surroundings. I walked about 3-4 hours in one direction, crossing through the ever-so-famous San Marco Square, but when I was there it was too early for there to be people (you can see it when I get all the pictures up). The walk was absolutely incredible, and I started to understand why retirement is such a popular thing to do. However, on the return, thousands of people crowded the streets, street vendors were everywhere, and it was really a tainted scene.

However, let's focus on positives. They use the old-style 'Wicked Witch of the West' brooms in Italy, which was really neat (though they seemed ineffective). The scenery is wonderful when there aren't people, and defintely a romantic place (though not when travelling alone). Tourist season is NOT the time to go. The place is a complete maze as well, which is great for wandering but bad for being punctual or trying to find a specific place. I learned that 'Venice' is Italian for 'labyrinth'.



This place is also very expensive (1 Euro to pee, 8 Euro for a taxi by boat). However, I did have a really cheap thrill that I enjoyed, which was buying a packet of seeds for 1 Euro and feeding them to the birds (more like them taking the seed out of my hand and climbing all over me). They were really funny, especially when the bird seed ran out and they would start smacking one another with their wings.

Anyway, I spent pretty much the whole day wandering around taking pictures. I did NOT do the gondole ride, as they are 80 Euro, and I wasn't proposing to anyone, so why bother? I had gelato (Italian ice cream) about 3 times, and it is truly delicious. That's about all I have to say about Venice. One day was entirely enough for me. A romantic place, but not the place you go alone and not during travel season.

See pictures here