Germany and Beyond: Italy: Venice

Venice is just lovely. The only shame is that everyone else thinks so too and that makes it the tourist capital of Italy. Especially after what a ghost town Cinque Terre had been, we had barely encountered another person in days.

In the two days we were here we walked at least twenty-five kilometres around Venice. After befriending many of the local cats on the far side of the city, I insisted we walk back again the next day to see their adorable little faces once more.

From what we can gather, a trip around the canals on a Gondola will cost you eighty Euros. Ludicrous. There was however no shortage of people keen to snap up the eighty Euro bargain.

I don't think it's possible to take a bad picture of Venice - I wish I was as photogenic

Next we headed to the famous Rialto Bridge. I had no idea Venice was such an old city. The bridge that stands now was built in 1551 - The original pontoon bridge that once stood here was built in 1181. Crazy.

Rialto Bridge built in the year 1551

The foundations of the buildings along the canals sit on closely spaced wooden piles. Amazing to think how after all this time the city is still standing.

Piazza San Marco (Saint Mark's Square)

The water had risen and flooded parts of the city, and on the first day my excellent shoes saw me through and onward past the hordes of tourists waiting patiently to reach dry land.

Feeling invincible in my super awesome waterproof shoes

On the second day I felt completely invincible and walked through an even bigger flood of water just to put them to the test. That's when this happened, and I felt silly.

For lunch we went to a small pasta shop that prepares a select range of sauces and cooks the pasta fresh before serving it. We had to queue before the place even opened but it was most definitely worth it. Sadly, places like Venice are riddled with overpriced, tourist trap restaurants where you can order last night's spaghetti preheated and frozen pizza oven-baked with a few pieces of ham strewn on top so this place was a diamond in the rough.

After lunch we carried on exploring the city and came across this cool bookshop (with a counter cat). In the middle of the shop books were awkwardly arranged within a gondola and out the back the owner had created a staircase made from old books. He was a bit of a nutter himself, but very friendly and happy for people to come in and just browse.

Pretty cool bookshop - lots of 70's porno magazines

Buy whhhhyyyy? SO many people dressed up like this, men and women with masks, capes, princess dresses...

So we found out why so many people were dressed up. We happened to be in Venice for the Carnevale Festival. The festival is traditionally celebrated with parades, masquerade balls, entertainment, music, and parties. Children throw confetti at each other and everyone dresses to the occasion.

Following the trend

Confetti was everywhere!

There was confetti, streamers and general party decorations just about everywhere we went. Lots of little girls were dressed up as princesses and men and women in tradition masquerade ball attire. The local buskers that dressed up for a living in Venice were completely outdone by the tourists.