Plaza Hotel Venice

... The hostel I stayed at was a DUMP! It was really pretty terrible. But I slept well-enough and opted to avoid the 'shower' and wait for the cruise. Though I know that will be a cramped space, but at least it will (hopefully) be clean.

Arrivederci Italy! A presto.

Hopefully I'll find internet here and there while docked at various ports. But it may be a full week before you get any witty, intelligent, humorous updates from this particular traveler. ;)

Ciao!

... dinner we went to the casino for a quick go on the slot machines but no luck so we went to our cabin .

NEXT DAY

We woke up the next morning and we were had a full day at sea so it was a very relaxing day and everything was done at a slow pace the weather was good and very sunny so we spent most of the day by the pool and bar area laying around on the sun lounges .That night we had a farewell Gala Dinner and a stage show like nothing you have ...

... The evening was spent exploring the city streets and trying to find a place that had good food, was near the canal and was not terribly expensive....nothing like that existed so we settled for an expensive meal of pizza which turned out to be worth all the money we spent. We stayed out until about 2am exploring and arrived back at our hostel, weary and ready for sleep.
Yesterday we woke up fairly late (about 930am or so) and after eating a free breakfast at the hostel (such ...

... they don’t understand me guide) he was very sweet and took us down some of the backstreet canals away from the hustle and bustle… truly different from anything we have seen…. ADRs returned safe and sound to mainland and found a local resteronti and had authentic Pizza great .. Not much topping on Italian pizza.. Its all in the crust!! The motel was a bit Faulty Towers and strange but friendly enough and clean..
On the road again….

... more amazing. I basically walked along every single canal on the island, twice (once in each direction). I took many, many pictures. It was like a wonderland of color.

All of the walking around made me very tired and I decided to have a late lunch at a Rick Steves recommended restaurant. I got spaghetti with meat sauce but it was very disappointing. It reminded me of hamburger helper. Really.

After I was done eating I ...

... are fun to window shop as their displays are colorful and eye catching. The shops I despise are in the tourist zones, they all look the same with t-shirts, fake masks, and modern chain clothing shops. I could go to Southcenter Mall if I wanted to see that stuff. The only major sight we visited was the La Fenice opera house. The theater burned in 2000, and was fully restored by 2003. La Fenice has had a bad history ...

After the wedding we spent a few days in Venice before flying home. This is one of the cities I wish I could walk around without anyone else there. I am sure it is much more beautiful without the hundreds of people on every little bridge. It was a lot of fun wandering around, getting lost and then finding a place to enjoy a glass of wine.

cheers

... did you know the Jewish Ghetto in Venice is THE original ghetto?) where I had a guided tour (required) of three of the synagogues, living side-by-side. The Ghetto was crammed full of Jews from all sorts of traditions, living together, so there are Ashkenazi, Sephardic, and Italian synagogues right there. Plus Holocaust memorials in the campo, where about 240 or so Jews were deported (only 8 returned) during the war. Even so, Venice lost the least number of ...

... and fries and the past two nights dinner has had too long of a line and so that had been my dinner and snack options as well. The overdose of sugar and salty food combined with grease was probably a trigger for the headache on top of not enough water and too little sleep. Thankfully I finally managed to fall asleep, but unfortunately I missed a really cool fireworks display that went almost until midnight. -T