anniversario numero due

A few weeks back we spent 3 lovely days in Venice for our 2nd wedding anniversary. It was our first trip to Italy and a great one at that. Chris spent a lot of the weekend eating, making his way through the different types of pasta and pizza. I loved the hand made glass jewellery for which Venice is famous. We stayed in an incredible B&B near Piazza di San Marco , one of the nicer areas on one of the nicer islands (there are 112 of them) of Venice. The place was small and each room had a theme. The furniture in the room was antique and we had our breakfast bought to our room each morning. I felt like royalty.

Although we didn't take one of those famous gondola rides (small boats and me don't mix) we got around on water buses, even bumping into a mate from London one night on a bus on the grand canal. We travelled over to the island Murano where the famous glass products are made. It was great watching these two old blokes blow molten glass into incredibly intricate glass products. They both had beer bellies and fags hanging out of their mouths whilst making the glass. They looked like any two old blokes in someones garage. Quite amusing.

The Piazza di San Marco was really beautiful. In it are the Basilica di San Marco and Doge's Palace. They are two massive structures, and the basilica even had a wavy floor from where the ground had settled (and not) so you were constantly walking up and down small hills in the church. We travelled over to the island of Lido (once an island where the rich and famous hung out) which on one side is the lagoon which has most of the Venetian islands, and on the other side is the Adriatic Sea. We sat on the beach and enjoyed the sun, something our pale bodies hadn't seen in quite some time. It was quite amusing how kitch the whole beach set up was with lots of cocktail bars and lounges with attached umbrellas. We cannot wait to get home and see white, clean sand cos we're yet to come across a beach that comes close to rivalling and Aussie beach. We water bussed it back to Lido at night as well to an outdoor restaurant near the ocean we'd seen. Just for a change, Chris loaded up again on pizza and pasta, and we followed it up with gelato.

A lot of Venice is as you see in the movies with narrow canals and old bridges. That aspect was incredible to see but it was also interesting to travel out to the other islands to see where most of the Venetians live, eat and play. They've definitely got the lifestle right with plenty of eating and drinking done. Not long now and we'll be back in Italy for a longer period of time, so hopefully it will be more of the same.