VENICE, ITALY

UNDERWATER WORLD

Since we’d developed a preference and love for the outer villages of main tourist haunts, we found a nice little place about 45minutes of Venice called Padua. We checked into a hotel which offered beautiful spacious rooms, English speaking news channels, wifi (a major win) and an amazing breakfast with unlimited lattes (a super major win)! As we dragged our luggage into reception, the skies opened up and unleashed fury, drenching Northern Italy to the core. This was pleasing considering that we were here to visit a city that is threatened by submerging from rising waters. We still stayed for a few days and we are so glad we did – Venice was lovely, even though many shops were flooded and the entire city was dotted with makeshift boardwalks above the foot of flood water. We still got to enjoy the charm and beauty of Venice and almost felt lucky to be able to experience it under a different light to what most do. As Ads had already been a few years beforehand, he played tour guide for the day and had Kez impressed with the way he remembered the history and sights of the city… but he later confessed that he had a small pocket map that he snuck a peek at every now and then to “make sure he was right”. Whilst we were walking the streets, we were approached by a suave man and were asked if we wanted a complimentary ride over to Murano – home of the famous glass blowing. He ushered us onto a beautiful private boat with polished cedar, brass fittings and white leather interior and said because it was quiet due to all of the rain, we could have a free ride across to Murano Island as he had to go to his workshop over there anyway. We hopped on and belted across the green waters, cosy and warm in the cabin, very happy with the $200+ saving we just made on a private water taxi. The nice gentleman showed us through his factory and insisted that we needn’t buy anything to be polite but it was a struggle to hold back. The colours, craftsmanship and quality of the glass wares they made in front of our eyes were amazing. Too amazing not to make any purchases.

WIN:
Laughing until we couldn’t breathe as we had a “who-can-click-their-heels-in-the-air-the-highest” competition in the alleys of Venice.

FAIL:
Ads’s competitive streak causing him to fall fair on his bum and damaging his coccyx. It is still debatable whether this is a win or fail (depending on who you ask).