Day 35 - Florence / Venice (Italy) - Ahhhh Venice

INDIANA JONES EAT YOUR HEART OUT. I'm not actually sure what "Eat your heart out" means, but my main introduction to Venice has been through "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" when Dr Jones gets lucky with a lovely Nazi spy in the city of canals.... and his famous line just after kissing said gorgeous spy is "Ahhh Venice" after which his eyes roll back, he smirks and drops below the camera - classic Indiana Jones! Needless to say Yen was a bit tired of all my "Ahhhhing" and eye rolling by the time we left Venice! We only had a flying (or should I say training... about 3 hours from Florence I think) visit to Venice (not to be confused with Vienna... but that's another story). We arrived around lunch time and only had until 11 the next morning. So we grabbed a 24 hour water bus pass (Venician public transport), headed right down to the other end of the island where the Doge's palace is. Now it's a lovely old palace, don't get me wrong, but in hindsight, we shouldn't have got the audio guides... we spent almost 3 hours learning about painting after painting when we would have been happy just quickly strolling through the whole thing (added to that the bodyless voice once again yelled out "Nooo phoottoooos"). So we popped out of it around 5pm, had to run to the Basilica di San Marco before it shut (another impressive Italian church - don't forget to take your hat off), climbed the bell tower (has an elevator actually, phew) for a fantastic view of Venice from above (mental note, head up the bell tower if the city floods!) and then strolled along the main canal for a while. After stories of wives harrassing husbands for not taking them on a gondola ride while in Venice (hello to Lisa and Sandro), I did some smooth talking and got a half hour ride of love for Yen and I (for 60 euro which isn't a bad price and was certainly long enough). To be honest I was probably the one who wanted to go on it most of all (refer back to Indiana Jones and "Ahhh Venice") - and though expensive it is a great experience... and if your gondalier bursts into song, it's probably just to warn other boats as he turns a blind corner. After getting back on dry land we meandered our way back to the hotel taking random streets and bridges... until Yen's feet got too tired and cold and the romance wore off (thank goodness for those 24 hour water bus tickets!). The night was finished off in true romantic style with dinner by a canal..... "Ahhhh Venice".
LESSON FOR THE DAY: Go on a gondola. Go in a group if you can to split the cost or just ask for a shorter ride (normally it's anout 3/4 of an hour but 1/2 an hour is fine). Apparently gondolas away from the main canal are a bit cheaper (ours was on the main canal though and wasn't too bad).