Venice

Venice is an amazing city. Winding narrow streets with stores and restaurants form a complete maze. There is no space for cars so you either walk the city or take a boat. However, it seemed like the only people willing to pay for a boat (and a private singer) on it were Asian tourists.

Venice was our day trip, we left our tent and backpacks on the campsite in Verona. When we got off the train, we had to cross just one bridge to reach downtown. Downtown is small enough so that you don’t get lost. You don’t really need a map, there are signs all over the place. It makes it feel more like a big playground if you explore the city yourself, without really trying to find things (you’ll find them anyways). Some people told me later that they couldn’t stand the smell of the canals. Either both of us couldn’t smell it or it simply isn’t that bad. We didn’t notice it, at least it must have been too insignificant to spoil the trip. We sent our postcards from there.

Once in a while, you hit a square surrounded by little stores, sometimes with a church. Probably the most famous bridge in Venice is the Rialto Bridge (I’ve seen Italian restaurants all over the world called Rialto). In the summer time, however, it is packed with tourists and souvenir stands. Finally, we got to a big square at the waterfront. There is a big church, some restaurants, lots of tourists, and a lot of pigeons. We sat there for a while and watched the scene. On our way back, we browsed some stores and had something to eat. We came back to Verona at night. We had seen a lot of very interesting and romantic places. It was time to move on. The next day, we packed our tent and backpacks and left our number one campground. We got on the train to Florence.