Florence bound

Today we were back into the travel routine, moving base camp from Venice to Florence. 

Again we took the high speed (246kph) train system, which is excellent and certainly better than driving or flying with the involvement of airports. 

Mind you, the amount of, size of, and weight of many people's luggage is crazy in my view. Especially for some senior citizens who then struggle to move their luggage around let alone put it above their heads onboard.

There was the usual sea of day trippers arriving at the Venice train station as we departed (great people watching) and it is obvious why the city chose to introduce a fee for all who do not stay at local accommodation. 

Of course, we arrived to find another sea of tourists in Florence. The volumes of people will presumably remain high until we reach the South.

This time we are staying in an apartment, partly for it's good location but also for access to a kitchen and washing machine.

Venezia Tres

We were up again with the sparrows to line up at St Marks Basilica. The system of buying tickets ahead works, but buying on site is also fine if you arrive early. 

The 'big guy' is going to wonder what's going on with me attending church more times in the past four days than the previous four decades!

It is yet another impressive structure that will have taken a very long time to build, especially the interior decorations. 

Next, Marie insisted on a paddle boat ride (Gondola in local dialect) which turned out to be a pleasant way to travel and it presents another perspective of Venice and it's properties.

Then a little wandering and shopping, behind the safety of the window! 

Our wandering took us past (included) wine bars with cicchetti for sustenance, Leonardo Da Vinci museo and many Piazza. 

It's safe to say that even Yoda couldn't rely on the force to navigate around Venice; the layout is not a grid like NY!. Google maps does well, until you temporarily lose signal in the small lanes below 4-6 storey buildings.

Onwards to Florence tomorrow.

Venezia Due

Today was FULL from 7am until 8pm! It included two very good tours: Murano (glass) and Burano (colour) islands then back past Doge Palace and on to a food tour. 

The tours were a great way to see a lot and to meet other interesting travelers. 

7am is the perfect time to look around because people don't get up early and day trippers arrive around 10am.

This is St Marks square at 8am this morning: 

Murano glass masters make some quite brilliant items. Most of which we were not allowed to photograph.

Then the cheerfully coloured houses and far fewer tourists make Burano island an excellent place to visit. 

along with a limoncello spritz or two 😊

Back in Venice; the Doge's Palace is another well crafted building from 14-16th centuries, with art displaying various myths, religious representations and embellished storylines from the period. The thing that we found most interesting was that the prison was part of the same property!

Then the food tour passing many cute little food outlets helped a young local called Olympia.

You cannot eat your tiramisu unless you finish your black squid ink risotto 😂

Finally, we walked back across 'tourist alley', sorry, Rialto bridge on our way back to the hotel. 

The number of people setting themselves up for ridiculously unnatural Instagram photos is laughable.

And now.... Sleep! 😴 

Venezia Uno

So it was back onto the fast train, bound for Venice, about 80 minutes away on yet another excellent public transport system. 

Upon arrival, initially it was difficult to see the 'sights' of Venice due to the overwhelming volume of humans here.

However, if you keep moving you begin to find some quieter lanes (it's great to have no cars or motorbikes around) and enjoy the difference that Venice offers with it's waterways. 

And then find a spot by a canal for a little wine and food. Nice.

Getting lost in the lanes is fun and easy to recover from.

The hotel is lovely and seems to be on the tour guides trail... Something about famous guests checking in today. 😁

Brilliant photo bomber

Verona II

Today was a 'free day' and having figured out how this city works we set off on our own tour of items that we were yet to visit.

The problem with touring is there are too many tourists! After 10am there is a constant river flow of humans getting in our way. It pays to start very early, which suits us well.

We continued the Shakespearean myth and passed Giuliette's tomb. Apparently that of the real daughter of influential family that is said to have been an inspiration for the story.

We absorbed some of God's rays at the Duomo. 'He' checked his iPad for the last time I attended church and discovered it must have been prior to the invention of the iPad! 😂

We are pretty confident that by the time we leave Rome we will have seen enough churches for this trip. 

The Catholics certainly knew how to 'spend' on building impressive and luxurious structures; definitely not the Presbyterian approach.

We also visited the local Roman theatre. Whilst very interesting, you also learn that today's archeologists are far more respectful of historical items (rebuild or replicate) than those immediately following the Romans (pull it down to re-use elsewhere, or cover it over).

Eating late hasn't worked well for us because our NZ time zone bodies are ready to sleep by 9pm so we tend to have a big lunch instead. Today we targeted Veronese risotto (yum).

Verona

It turns out that Romeo and Giuliette is actually a lesson in tourism not literature. The 'balcony' was added by a wise local architect during a rebuild in 1935. It's amazing to see a 'storyline' (myth) become a magnet for travelers. NZ should offer Middle Earth passport stamps and push this storyline harder. We found the Roman era items (arena especially) and people watching as the better highlights. It turns out that 25 April (Anzac Day) is also Liberation Day for Italy (WWII) so today was rather busy in the streets. 

Called to the Conclave

So, Cardinal Kevin from Dublin asked us to drop everything and get ourselves to Italy. We were on our way 24 hours later! How ever, we have now sent our apologies to Kevin from Dublin because we really are not keen on such long queues for our visit to the Vatican so we have opted to start in Milan instead. We should reach Rome in time to participate in the Convlave. Is recommend watching the movie for a little insight to the process. 

Packing for Italy