Saturday 18 June 2005

This morning we headed out and about in Venice in the morning near the railway station end of town. We headed down the narrow alleys, stopping to look in the shops for Venice's famous Murano Glass items.

I purchased a set of Rosary Beads and Chaucey got a miniture cat with a goldfish in it's stomach (it's very cute) and a new necklace. We walked along until we found a open air market selling fresh fish, fruit and veges (and tourist nick-nacks) After the day got hot again we grabbed lunch at McDonalds and headed back to the railway station to shelter from the heat for an hour before getting our train.

We are a little jaded of medievil churches and buildings after visiting so many European cities in which they are common so apart from the novelty of the lanes and canals I can't say that Venice really appealed to me. There were some nice touches - the owner of the shop I bought the Roasary Beads in didn't speak english, neither did the girl in McDonalds, so I got to try some Italian out. But overall, I wouldn't recommend spending more than a day in Venice - there is just too many tourists and every local is out to rip them off.

We caught the TrenItalia Eurostar from Venice to Rome - it is probably the fastest land vehicle I will travel in - we left Venice at 1pm and were in Rome by 7.30pm. As we were in first class we got complimentary soft drinks throughout the journey (the attendent described them as a 'present'). We headed to the hotel and then grabbed dinner at a restaurant just around the corner. A couple from California sat next to us and we chated to them for the evening about our experiences as tourists before heading back to the hotel for bed.