Venice

Our last trip together for 2008, was to Venice. As with last year, we took advantage of the fact that Mary was already in the area for work. We had found a tiny hotel (3 "suites") in a good (if hard to find) location only about 10 minutes walk from St Mark's Square. We loved the city! The Grand Canal was like the "Oxford Street" of Venice - very busy with lots of water-born traffic. As well as vaporetti (water buses), there were gondolas (of course), water taxis, water ambulances, water police "cars", even water trade vehicles.

St Mark's Square was pretty good too, not unlike the Grand' Place of Brussels - full of restaurants (sometimes expensive) and ornate architecture. We noticed that after a small amount of rain, and a high tide, it was beginning to flood. There were raised walkways for people to walk on without getting their shoes wet. Some buildings were covered in advertising hoardings as a form of (controversial) sponsorship for renovations.The Rialto Bridge was interesting - on the bridge itself and on the streets leading up to it there were countless souvenir stalls - not quite what we had expected.

One place that was high on list of priorities was the island of Murano where the famous Venetian glass is made. Like Venice proper, the streets are mostly canals, with the odd bridge to make crossing them easier! We spent a lot of time looking for a nice souvenir suitable for taking home to NZ. Some pieces were very beautiful, but way too big and heavy and expensive. In the end we found something. We could have spent a fortune.


The food and wine were great too of course. Philip tried old favourites lke lasagna and carbonara just to see how his own versions compared (not too badly as it happened).

Mary is spending2 weeks in NZ visiting family. Then we will spend Christmas in London - the last one with all 3 children in the UK