Venice

On a sudden whim, we decided to change our plans and instead of spending more time in the south, we caught the high speed train north to spend a full day each in Venice and Florence.

I think the one thing required for a trip to Venice above all else is Google Maps. The streets are a veritable maze, compounded by the buildings often being crowded together making it hard to get one's bearings. 

One of our guides summed it up as 'Even us locals get lost from time to time. If any local says otherwise then they're lying'.

As well as random exploring, we took part in three key activities : a walking tour with a local resident, a gondola ride, and a concert of Venetian music in an ancient church. 

The walking tour guide turned out to be an historian with a PhD, whose doctoral thesis centred on the historical value of graffiti. That put quite a different spin on the usual history lesson, with our guide pointing out many fascinating examples of graffiti that otherwise we may not even have noticed, let alone understood in context. We were also educated on all the usual stuff about buildings, settlements and culture, of course. Excellent tour! 

Mary and I found the symbols below particularly fascinating: they were in the fish market, and were used by Renaissance fisheries inspectors to check the minimum size of the catch, with severe penalties for anything caught undersized. 

 One item of graffiti I noticed I thought added to the cultural heritage in a simple and elegant manner :

Lunch was a simple affair:

Next, gondola ride! 

There are around 1000 gondola in Venice and most seemed to just be for tourists. The only exception we saw was one area in the Grand Canal where there were no convenient bridges nearby so a gondola ferry service filled the gap. 

Finally, a concert primarily of Vivaldi, starting with the Four Seasons. Performed in an ancient church, it was simply stunning! 

The shopping here was great, ranging from the usual high end luxury items one would find in any big city, down to the tourist trinkets one would find in any tourist destination, and everything in between. Also some surprises :

Many chocolate and sweet shops, of course, as this is a nation with a very sweet tooth :

How about a shop just selling rubber ducks? 

Sadly, this was closed both times we went past... 

In summary, how much did we like Venice? :