The wandering Designer: Amo Venezia

After spending a delirious night in London where I woke up not knowing what country I was in we set off early to the airport to catch a plane to Venice, Italy.

Arriving in Venice on very little sleep we caught a bus from the main land where the airport is located to the Island of Venice. Thinking it would be an easy job of throwing my 20kg backpack on my back with my hand luggage and handbag and walking the short distance of 1km to our hotel was a huge mistake. maps are very confusing in Venice and the street names don't seem to match up or are just not signposted at all. also the 35 degree heat didn't help but we eventually made it to our hotel with dan carrying both our packs...oops.

We stayed in the Venetian Ghetto area and from what we saw of venice, this area seemed to be the busiest as it is quite close to Saint Marks Square.

The following morning we decided to get up early to beat the crowds of tourists snapping photos of everything in sight. We explored around the quiet ally ways of the Jewish Ghetto.

After spending the day strolling around in the heat, eating Gelato and drinking Italian coffees we decided on the more substantial meal of pasta in a box! Alfredino's is a hole in the wall selling the freshest pasta in Venice with a small selection of simple sauces meant to be eaten straight away. We took our little pottles to a quiet ally way leading to the canals and sat down to enjoy. One of the cheapest and best meals we had in Italy.

The next day we explored around the saint Marks Square area. By about 9am the square is completely full with tourists! The image below is in front of the bridge of sighs, the view from the bridge of sighs was the last view of the beautiful Venice that convicts would see before their imprisonment.

The Grand Canal

We decided we better go on a Gondola ride even though they are ridiculously over priced. While waiting for the next available Gondola we managed to get a couple of Italian ladies who were on holiday to share the Gondola ride with us, halving the price...score! It was fun and obviously a must do in Venice.

Later on that evening we had a bottle of wine by the canal near our hotel, this is my favourite time in Venice because all the tourists have gone home after dinner (there is no night life in Venice) and you are left to explore an almost empty city.