Ciao Bella!

1 week and I will be leaving on a jet plane. Don’t know when I’ll be back again (musical interlude provided by your subconscious). Starting to sink in now that I have told everyone, resigned and given up my flat. Too late to change my mind? Even started packing last night. It’s December after all, that obviously means it’s time to pack up my life and start again.

The next week is absolutely mad. I work right up until 6pm Thursday and have every free moment accounted for until then. Thankfully I just came back from a holiday…

Venice… the city of canals… of history & culture… of Italian men! And I was there, in the middle of all of it from last Thursday morning until Monday evening… jealous? You should be! It was incredible! Like nothing I’ve ever seen before – all canals and tiny, winding streets that are so narrow you can open your arms and touch the houses on both sides. It was beautiful and romantic and so full of history and life – I loved it.

To be honest I didn’t do much more than walk around and revel in my surroundings. I would set out with great intentions to see museums and cathedrals and all the other musts, but would lose myself walking along the canals and all the tiny streets and just visit things as I came across them (primarily churches). I went to 3 of the small islands taking the vaperetto (water bus) to 3 of the small islands (Burano – known for its lace making, Morano – known for its glass blowing, and Lido – home of the Venice Film Festival). I loved it all but could have done without Lido. It was a normal busy town with cars and buses and big houses with gates… I just wanted to go back to Venice.

There are no cars in Venice. The city is actually made up of 121 islands, all connected by the little bridges over the canals – some of which would lead merely to someone’s front door. The bus and train station are at one end of the Grand Canal, at the end of the (approx 1 mile long) causeway connecting Venice to the mainland. From there you have only 2 methods of transport – feet or boat (bikes aren’t useful as there are too many bridges – pity anyone with mobility problems!).

Boats – loads of them. Gondolas – only for the tourists (didn’t take one). Transchetto (??) – a gondola boat without the fancy insides used just to take people across the Grand Canal (about a 1 min ride – cost €0.50) (took one). Vaperetto – Water buses transporting hundreds of people through the Grand Canal, around the outer parts of Venice and to the surrounding islands (had a 3 day pass – made good use). Water taxis – can access all the canals and have taxi ranks in certain points. And private boats – obviously valued the same as a car would be in any other town. Don’t understand how the parking works through as I didn’t see any public boat parks or meters next to the piers. Will definitely post pictures!