After spending two weeks being perpetually lost due to my severe lack of any sen of direction and my inability to follow directions from Google maps, my every faithful travelling companion decided she would take over and do the navigating....no one can be worse than me so I gladly relinquished the map and Venice is the first city that we have been to where we have successfully found our accommodation without getting lost (which was absolutely no thanks to me!). I thought that this was quite impressive as Venice is notorious for being confusing and for getting lost in as all of the lanes, canals and bridges start to look the same after a while-as we discovered that evening when we did get lost (thanks to me!). Thankfully, Marnie does have a sense of direction and can remember where we have and haven't been, while I keep getting distracted by all the pretty things and old buildings and lovely bridges! Good thing I have her along, or who knows where I would be by now! I think it was quite the accomplishment to conquer navigating a city that has canals instead of roads and winding little alleyways and very few street signs!
Venice was indeed a beautiful city and we got to experience it in Carnevale mode which was a little bit deterring at first, but we got into the spirit of it and quite enjoyed all of the costumes and masks after a while-although the city was very busy and there were a lot of people around. We were still able to see the main sights and admired St Mark's Cathedral from inside and out as well as seeing the Doge Palace, but more than that, we just enjoyed walking through the lanes and along the canals, crossing countless bridges and visiting lots of beautiful little shops as well as window shopping. We saw a lot of beautiful handcrafted lace and glass-2 things that Venice is justifiably famous for, as well as the elaborate masks!
After our 2 days in Venice, we moved on to another famous 'V' city-Verona! Again, Marnie navigated us to our hotel successfully (even though the street signs were hard to find here as well)-she certainly has a better track record than I do for finding our way around! We were only there for one night, but in that time managed to see the Arena(a smaller, pink version of the Colosseum, but still impressive in its own right) as well as Juliet's House (or La Casa de Guillieta) on Via Capello (Capulet Street). The iconic balcony was worth seeing and now I can say I've been there! We were very excited to find a supermarket with more than 3 aisles in it-somthing that we have not come across thus far-and spent quite a while walking around it and then stocking up on some fruit and other bits and pieces for our next train trips. We then spent our last night in Italy eating pizza near a lovely fountain in the middle of the main square in Verona, a perfect ending to a visit in a country that has so much rich history, natural beauty and remnants of centuries past.
It's onwards and upwards from here, through the Alps as we head further north.
You forgot to add that there was a huge sign pointing to our accommodation and a bright red hotel I think possibly may play a factor in finding it so easily.
ReplyDelete