More canals.....it must be Venice!

We experienced canals near Leicester, again in Rotterdam and Ansterdam, more canals in Germany so for a change we thought we'd visit Venice.........

We arrived in Venice by train to the news that the Water Buses were on 24 hour strike. Marvelous!

So began a one hour forty minute trek, suitcases in tow, down alleys packed with tourists. Up and down the many steps of the many, MANY bridges over the canals in 28 degrees of heat. It was only about 4km, but it felt like we'd run a marathon.

Thankfully our small apartment was cool and well equipped with air conditioning. A quick trip to the (tiny) Coop supermarket, about 5 minutes walk away and we had a supply of cold beers and a bottle of La Gioiosa Prosecco for our fridge. (not that it stayed in the fridge for long!).

Oh yes, we actually bought food too and Lizzie cooked up a delicious pasta dish with prosciutto, sundried tomatoes, olive oil and some watercress added at the very end. Tasty, simple and relatively cheap.

Other meals have been salads (great in this heat) and a nice antipasto plate with cheeses, meats, sundried tomatoes, fresh cherry tomatoes, olives, pesto and fresh crusty bread.

It's hideously expensive to eat out and drink out here. After the cheap drinks of Czech Republic and reasonable prices in Germany and Austria - Venice really packs a punch when it comes to food and drink prices. It cost us 12 Euro for a smallish beer and the same sized shandy. Back in Czech Republic we could have had 12 beers for the same price....in Germany 3 or 4 beers.

Supermarket prices for a half litre of beer range from about 0.7 of a Euro up to 1.5 Euros (you can buy more expensive, but those were the prices we paid). The Prosecco was 6.45 Euro for a bottle. That's cheap compared to what we've paid in New Zealand for the same wine.

So, rule of thumb if you want to eat cheaply in Venice.....buy from the supermarket and prepare your own.

That said, when in a supermarket or any other shop for that matter, watch what the locals do and do the same. I wasted several minutes at the deli counter waiting to be served when others who had arrived after me were getting served before me. There's a ticket system. You have to take a ticket and wait for your number to be called......then you get served.

You're no doubt wondering.....have we had a gondola ride? The short answer is HELL NO - not at 80 Euro a time (NZ$125). That's 2 nights accommodation cost. Too rich for us.

So Venice......I'm not going into it's geography or history in any depth as so much has been written on it in the past and there's pages and pages on line if you're interested.....but the islands have been occupied since around the 9th century. Locals fled to the islands from the mainland to escape invaders and stayed here. By the middle ages it had become an important trading place and the city grew rapidly and became rich and opulent with many palaces being built here.

Venice is built on a series of over 100 islands. On the islands there are no roads, no cars......just canals and boats. Bridges link many of the islands together meaning that much of Venice is walkable. If you get away from places like the Rialto Bridge and St Marks Square you can avoid the thickest of the tourist crowds. Once you get down to where we are staying - by water bus stop "Giardini"- Riva del Partigiani, any sign of tourists is sparse and they (we) are easy to spot as we're the ones with the cameras and maps....the rest - hurrying about their business are the locals.

And they still hang their washing all the way across the street.

We arrived here on Monday and the weather has been hot and sunny. Today it was still quite warm, but overcast and humid.....until the rain started. I've never seen such big drops of rain. We were caught in the maze of alleys, typical of the area of Venice we are staying in. We had a map, but we'd lost track of where we were on the map so when the heavens opened we took shelter in the nearest passageway between the houses. We were soon joined there by a local also trying to escape the worst of the deluge. Fortunately it didn't last for long and we found our way "home" again for a bite of lunch and some very tasty Italian pastries.

More thunderstorms are forecast for the afternoon, but I think we're going to risk it and head into the main part of town for a last look around. We are off to Florence/Firenze tomorrow.

We had a nice evening stroll along the waterfront to St Marks Square last night to take some evening/sunset/night photos - some of them turned out quite well I think.

The ice creams / gelato here are delicious. Again the prices vary - if you are on the waterfront near St Marks it's expensive - on the back alleys - about half the price.

There are a lot of street traders selling their wares. Lot's of people selling selfie sticks and fake Gucci handbags.

All along the waterfront are stalls selling the usual tourist fare - t-shirts, hats, sunglasses etc AND a lot of masks. The reason for this I'll leave to wikipedia which says "The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter, on Shrove Tuesday (Martedì Grasso or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The festival is world famous for its elaborate masks."

So that's why all the masks. You can buy ones costing up to around 20 Euro from the stalls, but ones is shops are more elaborate and made of finer materials and can cost several hundred Euro. Crazy money!

OK so here's an after note. You know earlier I said we were going to risk the thunderstorms and head off into town? We walked along the waterfront and just reached St marks when the skies opened. We managed to take shelter with several hundred others under the arches on the edge of the square. Still the tour groups keep marching by only now most are either under umbrellas or wearing huge "I heart Venice" ponchos.

After almost an hour of sheltering here.....trying unsuccessfully to get a photo of the lightning flash over the city scape....Lizzie had the great idea that we should make a "dash" for it. Most of you who know me will know that due to my dodgy knee I don't do such things as a "dash" these days.......unless it's a dash of soda in my drink.

On the way I buy a new cap. My hat I bought in Berlin is no good for really hot days as it makes my head sweat too much and I have no idea where I lost the black baseball cap that I bought in Cornwall, so for a few days I've been wearing a bandanna and looking like an aged hippy.

Lizzie ends up looking better in it than me though.

Photo above - MY new cap.

Photo above - the aging hippy and his sidekick.

So we hobble - walked as quickly as we could in the direction of our apartment. Needless to say we are soaked by the time we get back and to rub salt into the wound the sun is now shining!

Tomorrow we leave for Florence......and hopefully sunshine.

More photos as usual on my facebook page.....https://www.facebook.com/malcfrost