Destination #43 - Venice, Italy

Milan was the exact same the morning I left, thunderstorms and torrential downpours. My hope was that Venice would be better weather, although the forecast was saying thunderstorms all week. Excellent.

I took a train over to Venice and arrived late afternoon. Luckily, the weather was holding up. When I had booked this part of the trip, I could not find a decently priced hostel on the main island. I think the cheapest room I could find, which was a 10 bed dorm, was £40 a night, which is outrageous. Plus, the reviews on these hostels were not very good. So instead I decided to pay the little bit extra to book a hotel room on the island of Lido. I'm glad I did. I needed a break from hostels.

After checking in, I ventured over to San Marco, the main square in Venice, where they have Saint Mark's Basilica, St Mark's Campanile, and Doge's Palace. Beautiful, but full of tourists.

I then pretty much just decided to get "lost" in the streets and it was the best idea. So many streets and so many canals - it was very picturesque. One of the famous bridges in Venice, the Rialto Bridge was under construction so that was shame.

For dinner, I got a massive pizza and a glass of wine at a restaurant that overlooked the water.

Day two actually turned out to be decent weather again, although there were storm clouds off to the side the entire day. I started the day by taking off to the nearby island of Burano. This was my favourite. All the houses are painted in bright colours and it just looked like something you'd see in cartoon. I highly recommend visiting this island if anyone ever goes to Venice.

Next stop was the island of Murano. A bit more touristy on this part. These guys are known for the famous glass making that they do here in Venice, so there were lots of glass art shops and factories. I would have bought something but we all know it would probably break in my bag at some point. After Murano, I quickly stopped by the next island over which was Venice's main cemetery. I swear I'm not weird. Just thought it'd be interesting to have a look. When I finished there, I wandered around the northern part of Venice until grabbing some fresh pasta for dinner. I made one final stop on the Eastern side of the island where it seemed to be just locals in this area.

I think my thought of Venice was that it was going to be too touristy. The main bit was, San Marco, but once you get out of that area, it's worth it and it's beautiful. I really liked Venice and would definitely return.

Next:
Cinque Terre
Rome
Sorrento
Assisi
Florence