Italy

Venice
We arrived in Venice railway station at 9:50 in the evening wondering if we would be able to get any food. We checked in to Hotel Adriatico which is less than ten minutes from the train. Even though it was mid-week and late at night, the place was buzzing. It was easy to sit down at one of dozens of restaurants. We had a delicious meal of lasagne and pizza with wine of course.






Venice is such a beautiful city. We started our new day with a trip on the water bus to Piazza San Marco. The architecture is spectacular.






Ingrid also loved the shopping. Venice is supposed to be an expensive town, but some things - handbags, linen etc is cheaper than Australia. Ingrid bought a handbag for 35 euros and a hat for 10.






We spent the whole day wandering around the lanes and streets. Sometimes a pokey little alley turns out to be the main thoroughfare between important points. Other times it's a wide path. It all seems to be thrown together randomly. There are over a hundred islands and four hundred bridges. We got lost a few times but didn't really mind. It is a beautiful place.




Breakfast:
The Italians don't get the concept of breakfast. A few places have included breakfast, but its just some sweet sticky bun. I suggest you skip the hotel breakfast and buy something elsewhere.







Florence

We took a train to Florence. Even from the Florence station we could see the dome of the massive cathedral - the Duomo. It was a useful landmark to find our hotel.

We picked our hotel from the Lonely Planet guide. It was the Hotel Dali unfortunately it was full, but the owners put us up in an apartment that was located just a block from Leonardo Da Vinci's house.


On our way to the hotel, we happened on the leather market. It was a lane, several hundred metres long jam-packed with thousands of handbags in numerous stalls. Ingrid seemed to be in heaven.

Our apartment was small and basic, but met our needs for one night. The next night, we stayed at a place named Hotel Bodoni. It was centrally located and a pleasant place to stay. We packed a box of goodies for dispatch to Australia. We were able to send up to 10kg for 50 euros.

Our hotel manager recommended a particular resturant which turned out to be excellent. It was named Risterante Il Teatro located at Via Ghibellina, 128. The food was great and the staff, warm and friendly.