All hating on Garai, we were forced to remember that today was a new adventure. Venice was headed our way!
I'm sure you have all had that same dream once; to glide down the Venetian canals, down the romantic side streets.... Ahhh. We were about to relive the romance films firsthand.
Once we arrived at the campsite, we dumped our luggage in our cabins and walked to where the private boat awaited us. Only a thirty minute ride away was Venice. We could see Venice approaching us in the distance. So unbelievably beautiful. (note the sepia tone - 'the dream')
The disarray of beautifully decorated gondolas and boats declared just how much of a tourist destination Venice was. There was no need for cars or buses... water was the only way. One couldn't possibly consider swimming as an alternative as the canal was highly toxic.
We arrived at the gondolas and stepped into a dream.
The lovely man who steered us through all the nooks and crannies of the beautiful canals, did so with such ease. As if he had done it for years. Like second nature almost. There were so many close calls where I was certain we would crash into another gondola, but not once did we come dangerously close.
The sidestreets were everything we had dreamed them to be. Lauren couldn't help but recall the film; 'The Tourist' and scenes where Angelina Jolie raced down these same canals....
The minute we stepped off our gondola we felt like we had ticked off something on the bucket list. You just have to experience the canals of Venice for yourselves.... No photo does it any justice.
Lauren, Andrea, Kim and I approached the clutter of markets along the waterside, buying little token merrano glass bracelets and souvenirs. Along the way I got a little peckish. I spotted a pottle of tiramisu in a random little cafe and just knew it was love. It was easily the BEST tiramisu of my life. Look and be jealous...
We wandered through the streets, trying too hard to 'get lost in Venice'... as people do, both unintentionally and on purpose. Well we tried.
There was a stupid amount of shops to buy gorgeous pashmina scarves, jewellery and places to eat authentic Italian food. We discovered this street with very very cheap marguerita pizza; 6.50 Euro. It was decided that it was to be dinner... that is if we found it again.
There was something so different about Venice to the other places we had encountered in Italy. It was somewhat magical, but at the same time there wasn't a whole lot to do or many big tourist attractions, except the canals of course. It was so nice just relaxing in the sun with what was sadly to be my last Italian coffee (sadface) in the sun in the square.
We all continued our wander, absorbing the excitement of the city/island and contemplating the best place for dinner. We eventually - after genuinely getting lost - found the pizza place that we had found earlier, and treated ourselves to exceptional pizza and lasagna. It was glorious.
We all couldn't help but indulge in some gelati before meeting the rest of the group close to 9pm to head back to the campsite. Everyone had either eaten a ridiculous amount or by the sounds of it, gotten manipulated into buying overpriced souvenir sweaters.
As we hopped on the boat, we all glanced back at the beautiful Venice - the dream - that was shortlived, but unforgettable.
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