Italy Adventure day 2: Venice, Florence

Woke up at 8am, showered and checked out of our hostel. Though the hostel was ulu, it was good. 2 beds with private bathrooms for €19 per person. The staff was friendly and helpful as well. Can go there next time if anybody wants to!

The weather was perfect and Venice was VERY BEAUTIFUL in the day. It was just like the image of the jigsaw puzzle I had in secondary school! (That's the only impression I had of Venice)

Views near our hostel

Boats and legs were our only mode of transport in Venice and to save money (a taxi-boat costs €6.50 a ride), we chose to walk! We got lost sometimes, but we were much better off already, thanks to the map given to us! :D

Shop window of a Snack bar. Salivating?

My fav pic taken on 1 of the many bridges =)

GON-dola, GON-dola!

Don't ask me why I didn't ride the gondola, ask me how much it costs to ride in one. Didn't ask for a quotation but heard that it costs €70 per person!!!!! yup :]

After walking for about 40mins, we arrived at St Mark's Square. It was HUGE. The buildings were nice but kinda dirty, black from grime and dirt i guess, looked like a fire happened in the past :P If it was in SG, the exterior would be so white and clean *imagines Raffles Hotel*

St Mark's Square!

At the Square was Basilica San Marco (St Mark's Church) and Palazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace). Paid €6 to tour the palace. Can't really remember what I saw. I remembered rooms filled with artwork, pretty fireplaces, several rooms that had no significant functions, etc. The place was big though and I thought it was quite worth the money spent :)

Basilica San Marco

Exterior of Palazzo Ducale

Inside Palazzo Ducale

自拍成功!!! Ha! :D

The water lvl is so high!

We proceeded to Ponte di Rialto/Rialto bridge after that, which 'boasts breathtaking views over the Grand Canal' (extracted from a travel guide). It was ok I think. The view was indeed nice but the bridge... is a bridge lor.. haha =X

Ponte di Rialto

If only Clarke quay was as nice =X

Zi pai on the bridge! :D

Venice was quite small actually, we finished looking at the attractions way ahead of time! Found an eatery filled with people, so we figured that it must be a local eatery or the food was very cheap. Shared some fried bread filled with mozarella with Haowen. It was super oily, fattening and sinful but it was GOOD. On the way back to our hostel where we left our luggages, we stumbled upon a Pizzeria which sold cheap Pizzas! Magherita for €1.60 and Pepporoni for €2! Plus it was warm, super nice :D

Cheap & NICE!

We also walked to the train station to buy tickets to Florence, our next stop. We had two alternatives: 1)Earlier and faster train that cost €34 2) Later and slower train that cost €17. Big difference but we bought the earlier train in the end cos we have nothing else to do in Venice. We left Venice at around 445pm for Florence, 3 hrs away!

At Florence, we repeated the same procedures; searched for our hostel, got lost a bit, found our way, settled down, went out to find food. Took a LONG time to find a cheap restaurant that doesn't only sell pizzas (we had pizzas for breakfast & lunch alr) Finally found one and had penne with bacons and mushrooms. Very nice I thought :) The staff were very friendly too and we chatted with them a bit :D Italians are really friendly and lively I think :)

The hostel had free internet access, by the time we went back, there wasn't anyone using the computer and so we could use it! Checked and replied my mails. Before I went to bed, I remembered that the door was unlocked but was lazy to climb down from the upper deck. Wanted to tell Haowen to lock the door after she's finished bathing. But in the end I fell aslp.

At 630am, I woke up to find my worst fear came true! Someone opened our door and took HaoWen's bag, which she placed beside her on the bed! Fortunately, Haowen was sick and went to the toilet not long ago, so she woke up when she felt someone tugging her bag away. The thief didn't run away with the bag as well but placed it beside the door. Nothing was lost, HENG AH!! Otherwise I'd be so guilty for the rest of my life.

Lesson learnt: Don't be lazy. haha :P