Sestière di Santa Croce

Wow! I think this city was my favourite so far!

Our campground wasn't actually in Venice, but a short ride over by water taxi. The mosquitos (mozzies, in Aussie-speak) were noteworthy, but the bug repellant helped.

Venice is actually made up of 118 islands that are connected by hundreds of bridges of various types and sizes; everything from the opulent Rialto Bridge and Bridge of Sighs to a regular footbridge. St. Mark is the patron saint of Venice and the Basilica named in his honour is quite spectacular and the only works of art inside are mosaics. The basilica opens up onto St Mark's Square, which is quite large and home to thousands of pigeons.

We started off our full day in Venice bright and early with a walking tour led by a really terrific tour guide that lives in Venice - she even pointed out her house. There are over 120 churches because, historically, each island had at least one church. There are no cars or bicycles permitted in Venice, which is great for walking around, buy it's an extra challenge to move goods (and even garbage) around the city, so everything is moved using hand carts (definitely contribute to the high cost of Venice).

We had free time after our walking tour ended in St Mark's Square, so a group of us hit some of the high points (Rialto and Sighs) and went exploring. In case of emergency, we had a Mario, but it was fun just walking around the tiny streets, looking in shops, gelato and food multiple times. A few of us found a little restaurant and spent a couple of hours with pasta and vino, then we meet up with the whole group for gondola rides.

Gondolas are pretty much exclusively for tourists at this point and I'm glad to have experienced it. There were six of us per gondola and our gondolier was one his cell phone almost the entire time, which kind of stunted what I'd pictured, but it was near anyway.

I'd mentioned to Cobey and Amelio how much I enjoy bringing back art from trips because it's something that I can display at home and bring back memories from travels. As we were walking back from the gondolas, they came across a man drawing with charcoal and they brought me over... His pieces were amazing! It was a tough decision, but I decided on a charcoal sketch of the Bridge of Sighs. Perfect, since I was definitely hoping to find something in black and white for home. It won't smudge and is sandwiched in cardboard to keep it safe until I get home! I took a photo with the artist and Cobey took a time-lapse of his sketching while I was deciding... Amazing!

It's hard to explain, but I really enjoyed the vibe of the city as a whole. I'm glad I found a terrific souvenir from this terrific city!Read more