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After a hectic train journey with two changes and a realisation that the Italian train stations are as big as airports, we arrived at Venice. We exited the station to a view over the grand canal, with stone bridges and churches. The sunset brought a beautiful mix of purple, red and pink across the sky. We were actually pretty overwhelmed, and had to take a few minutes to take it all in. Venice looks exactly like every film or photo you have seen and it blew our sceptic minds away in the first few seconds.
We assumed that being a city it would be a reasonable size, so we opted for the canal boat round the main islands to a near by stop. Now we realise that we could have saved ourselves €16 if we'd just walked as everything is quiet close together; although the boat journey was well worth it as it passed under the bridges. Our hotel was on a large piazza called San Polo with shops and an ice skating rink set up in the middle. Although it was awkward to organise getting into the hotel; we had to call them off WhatsApp, but the room was beautiful! It had Venusian wooden furniture and ornately decorated chairs, with a view out of the window onto a picturesque courtyard. We did have a shared bathroom but we didn't need to share with anyone until our last night, which was a bonus! We even got breakfast in the morning free of charge!!
After a nice breakfast of breads and coffee, we donned our layers and ventured into the world of Venice with only 24 hours to see the sights. We meandered through small streets with shops selling food, clothes, gifts and Venesian masks. Tiny bridges passed over small canals with gondoliers and delivery boats floating through. The tall buildings still had the faded colours and wooden shutters of other Italian houses. The whole place was utterly beautiful, we couldn't put our cameras down. Like Rome you would suddenly come upon small piazzas with large stone churches and fountains. By 1pm we had seen all the main sights we'd planned, with St Marks Square with its very grand cathedral which looked out of place compared to the rest of the area. A beautiful hidden winding staircase, that would have looked perfect in a Disney princess movie. But we found the best thing to do was just walk, we walked all over the place from the locals islands to tourist central. The enjoyment for us was just taking in the beauty and the architectural feats of building this stunning city on a collection of islands in a lagoon.
We noticed that different islands had different price brackets on food. There seemed to be tourist overpriced areas and local eating areas. Luckily we had the time and patience to hunt out the cheaper areas for lunch and dinner. We loved the cafes that sold huge slices of pizza or bakeries full of cannoli and other sweet treats. Every restaurant we saw had a menu that was way out of our price budget, except one. We popped in and walked straight back out again when we were greeted by Chinese staff who seemed quiet bewildered, shouting and rushing around. Plus they charged more for drinks than food!
The biggest problem that many people face when visiting Venice is the cost. The food costs more to sit down in resturant, the hundreds of church's, museums and ballrooms cost at least €8 each. The gondoliers charge a minimum of €70 a ride and the canal boats arent exactly cheap. But, we actually visited on a budget of under €25 a day for food and activities. Our sight seeing was the enjoyment of getting lost in the narrow alleyways of Venice. For food we bought olives, pizza slices, breads, fruit and street food from supermarkets and cafes to eat out or in our room in the evening which was delicious. The main thing that kept us to our budget was the time of year we visited. January is bitterly cold with minus temperatures in the early morning, it scares off a hell of alot of tourists who come to Italy for the sun, but its the cheapest time to be here. The food places all had offers on and there has been hardly any tourists, meaning we could walk around with ease. For Italy January is a great time to visit if your happy to layer up!
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