Venezia

Venice is a really unique city. It's main square San Marco Piazza is beautiful. There is the San Marco Church and lavish espresso bars and expensive jewellery stores bordering the piazza. Off comes little alley ways which we couldn't wait to wander.

 My main aim of Venice was to find my mum a unique Venetian mask. She has been collecting them as long as I can remember. She has one from each of my siblings. After a while the stores all started to look the same. We ran into a corner store with walls covered from top to bottom in beautiful masks. Two young women were running the store and they were really friendly. It was called 'Venice Art Di Myshketa Artur'. I spotted a beautiful cream coloured mask with gold trimming framed with jolly bells and I knew straight away that mum would love it. It was about 180 euro but it was worth it. I have a month of travel still so it would have been impossible to carry it around with me so the girls shipped it off for me for an extra 50 euro. They seemed very professional so fingers crossed it gets home!

After lots of walking we headed to lunch near the main canal at Bar Ristorante Omnibus. For a good 20 euro we had three courses including pasta napolitana, fried fish, french fries and watermelon. We were so full! A good 20 euro well spent.

The next aim of Venice was to feed some pigeons. If you're not a fan of birds I suggest don't come to Venice because they swoop A LOT. We bought some seeds from a professional photographer and stood in the midst of a whole lot of pigeons. We stuck our hands out and they started flying towards us. In between each 'smile!' there were many squeals but the experience was fantastic and I would probably do it again!

Even though we were full we couldn't pass on Gelati. We bought tiramisu Gelati from a gelateria in the main piazza and it was damn good! 

The very last aim of Venice was to ride a gondola of course. We got the group together and Alana and I scored the lover's seat! The views were stunning and the weather was perfect. Claudio our gondoliero weaved us through the city. Another 'happy moment'. 

After the gondola ride we met for dinner at Ristorante trovatore. This was a contiki optional. After eating so much at lunch it was impossible to keep up with the almost 10 course meal. Much like our Nice experience the restaurant had  little atmosphere and again was tucked away within the city. 

We caught a boat back to the mainland and the short cruise made up for a disappointing dinner with its views of the Venice port.

Venice is without a doubt one of those places I have to visit again. 

Via Porzia

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