Venezia, Italy

I didn't like Venice all that much. There were SO many tourists, it drove me nutty. Since there were so many people, I had more trouble finding a decent place to stay than anywhere else in my travels. I ended up only staying 36 hours. Take away the tourists, and Venice can be the beautiful, romantic place you imagine. It might have been better if I had been there with "someone special" but that just wasn't in the cards for this stop.


Views of the Grand Canal. Boats are the only way to get around central Venice. There are no cars. For a change, I didn't have to dodge cars and mopeds everywhere I went.

Just another cathedral.	Basilica di San Marco. In the piazza at night, string quartets play classical music for the masses. Google Map


The gondolas were lined up stem to stern. It looked more like a ride at an amusement park than a romantic getaway.	These people have obviously never seen what pigeons do to statues.	Attempt at an artsy shot.


Another cathedral. Google Map	The golden exterior of Basilica di San Marco


	Another cruiseship arrives to disgorge its contents into the canals of Venice.

Thoroughly frustrated with the crowds on my second day, I took off from Venice and got off the train at the first nice looking town I saw. I chose Padova. It reminded me of an Italian version of Guelph for some reason. It was a pretty town with NO TOURISTS!!! I wandered around for much of the day, took in the sights from a park, watched a World Cup match in a bar, and ate pizza and gelato (my usual diet).

I returned to Venice for the early evening before departing on an overnight train to Budapest, Hungary to meet my dad.