Domenica Pomeriggio a Venezia

Last Sunday afternoon, I was given the wonderful opportunity of being shown around Venice! I was very lucky to have locals as my tour guides so there was no stopping to look at maps or taking long winded routes to the main sights.

I could've cried when I got out of the train station it was so beautiful and I'd already decided it is my new favourite city (sorry Bath) before we even got to Piazza San Marco or the Grand Canal.

I think the photos speak for themselves and they say a picture tells a thousand words, so I'll let them do the talking. Have a look at the "snaps" tab or my Facebook page for all of the pictures I took :)

Our trip provided me with the opportunity to use a train for the first time ever abroad! I've been told horror stories about Italian public transport with remembering to stamp the ticket on the platform to validate it etc, but my host family made everything look easy. And people actually talk to you on public transport here! They will actually strike up a conversation randomly. Normally I'd find this wonderfully friendly and a welcome change from the London trains, but I spent most of the journey terrified that someone would start talking to me and when some random lady asked me if it was my first time in Venice (and something else I couldn't understand), I just smiled and nodded and tried not to prompt further questioning. She turned out to be quite chatty once she got going though so I got swept into the conversation. Terrifying, but undoubtedly good Italian practice. 

The train journey into Venice is a wonderful experience in itself. You have to go across the low bridge and if you sit on the left side of the train, all you see is water directly beneath you, giving you this strange sensation that you're on a boat.

Inevitably, there were plenty of British weekend-trippers out and about in the city and I took great pleasure in listening in to a few conversations. Being on holiday, they probably wouldn't bat an eyelid hearing other British people walking around, but when you haven't had a face to face conversation with a fellow countryman in nearly 6 long weeks, it is the most wonderful feeling to hear a familiar accent. The general consensus from what I picked up on seemed to be that people are annoyed they chose this week to go abroad when there is equally good weather back home!