Day 8 - Venice Walking Tour & Gondola Ride

We experienced our first buffet breakfast this morning and the kids were beside themselves! I'm not quite sure just how many serves of Nutella on toast Nic had, but judging by his smeared face - a lot! They were stressing out that Palazzo Bembo might not have quite the spread and maybe we should stay at Priuli instead!

I think we have the weather angels following us because the next 3 days are forecast to be 23 degrees and sun shining. This is the BEST time of the year to travel, not too hot, just nice and not hoards of people to contend with.

We met our guide at 11am and she gave us some history about how Venice came about, the Dodges Palace and Saint Marcs Cathedral & Piazza. Fascinating! I loved that the last execution was in the late 1700's between these two poles and that the spectators could mark the time of death with the big clock tower behind. 300 years later, Nonna's still tell their misbehaving nipote "Do you want me to show you the time?" meaning I'm going to take you down to be hung in Saint Marco Piazza... Love it.

The Pope is coming to Venice in a couple of weeks, so they are frantically trying to beautify the place up for him, so there was a bit of scaffolding and platforms being built. The biggest disappointment for me is all the huge advertising billboards being hung in the main piazza :(

Voi che ti mostro che ora e?

We didn't stand in the middle of the two poles because the Venetians believe that it is bad luck.

We had to make sure that our shoulders and knees were covered before we went into the church. You are also not allowed to take any photos in there.

This is the millionth photo Ben has offered to take of other tourists....

....and every once in a while, they offer back.

This is us standing on the Rialto bridge. The building to the right of the white one above Olivia's head in the background is Palazzo Bembo.

Our room is on the very top floor, the 2 windows on the left.

A waiter who looked exactly like Uncle Angelo heckled us as we walked past his restaurant and convinced us to come in for lunch (and you think Lygon St is bad?). It was good. We spent a good couple of hours just watching Venice at play.

His side profile was a more striking resemblance than front on, but can you see Uncle Angelo?

On the Rialto Bridge

View from our Penthouse suite - to the Left....

...and to the Right

Our Gondola Ride

We were leaving for the gondola ride and Nic asked us to wait so that he could go back in and grab his cap "because that's what attracts the girls"... and it does!

Beautiful Day.

X

Day 7 - Au Revoir Paris, Buon Giorno Italia!

We got picked up at 6:30am to set off for our flight to Milano on Luftansa. I certainly wasn't expecting much for the fares that we paid, in fact I was convinced that they sold these $100 pp fares to use up the last dregs of the oldest of old aeroplanes before they sent them to the scrap heap! Nup, not the case. The flight was great, the plane was new, the service wonderful AND we didn't get charged excess luggage even though 2 of our bags were a couple of kilos over!

When we landed in Milano, we bought ourselves a travelling map, picked up our car (more like a mini bus) and headed off to Lake Como. We thought we would have lunch at Bellagio, see George Clooney and then head over to Venezia and guess what?? We bloody did!!!! Georgey boy drove past us in his silver Porche (slow enough for us to see him, but we weren't fast enough to juggle the camera with an ice cream in our hands!!! SPEW!) O M G - Gabby you would have died!!!!!!   ;)

Where we had lunch

yum, one of the BEST meals we had on our trip!

Nicholas decided he was going to go on a hunt for the Best Lasagne in the world, starting here!

It was just after this photo that we saw George Clooney. I'm spewing we didn't have the camera ready for that!

Nice little boat there...You wish Ben

Our hire car

As we left Bellagio, we were driving towards Venice and 'Shazam' came on the radio (Alberto & Romina Powers) I became so overwhelmed and emotional that I cried - it must have been that I saw spunky George that tipped me over the edge!

They zonked it for 3 hours!

We arrived in Venice at around 7pm just as the sun was going down. It was a beautiful mild night.

We had to spend our first night at Palazzo Priuli because they were having trouble with the hot water service at Palazzo Bembo. It was gorgeous and we got an upgrade for our inconvenience and a complimentary bottle of Prosecco - I no complain.

Day 6 - Catacomb & Champs Elysee

This time we we're not going to be lining up out the front of the Catacombs for hours only to miss out! We got to there at 9:30am and we were the second in line for a 10am opening.

As soon as we were about half way down the 130 steps to the starting point the air started changing. The temperature dropped and the air felt damp, it even smelt like we were 6ft under. You couldn't go down there if you were the sort of person whose mind plays games with them because the moment you let yourself feel like you were being interred surely an anxiety attack would set in. In fact, there is a warning on the entry sign pretty much telling you that. Mum, you would have hated it. Olivia had a brief moment which could have gone badly, but luckily she took control, took a few deep breaths and was ok.

Most people would get creeped out a bit when they first walk into the ossuary with the millions of bones neatly lined up and skulls placed around decoratively.... Not us though!

Well some of us a little more creeped out than others.

The original Skull and Bones

Yes, that's all bones & skulls

Millions of them

for miles and miles

When they got bored of stacking neat piles they created some decorative patterns with the skulls

Now that's a barrel load of bones if I ever saw one

There's only 83 steps up to exit but they have a de-fribulator at the top of the stairs - just in case!

That's not the right shopping bag hanging off my arm :(

Be wearing his 40th birthday present we just bought, yes, it's a Breitling  (Super Avenger) ...where was that's excentrique plaque again?

All in all, not a bad day on the Champs Elysee