Venezia & Firenze

Venezia!! Thats right Venezia is Venice in Italian. Not exactly sure why every language feels the need to change the names of cities. I can pronounce Venezia so I'm not sure why English speakers changed it to Venice. The name Florence is even stranger, in Italian it is Firenze. Both these cities are beautiful though, whatever their names may be.

Camping Rialto

We started in Venezia. We found a cheap flight and bang! Naples to Venice in an hour an a half. We rolled into our sweet pad at camping Rialto around 11:00 am. Our cabin was fifteen minutes by bus from Venezia, but had the edge of being the cheapest accommodation possible. The bus ride consisted of driving over the long bridge that connects Venezia to the mainland; staring at the ocean fading into the horizon. We originally thought we were going to bus everywhere but upon arriving discovered that Venezia is small enough to walk everywhere. Good news for the wallet! We had lunch in a great little "Trattoria" recommend for its cheap, good, simple Italian fare. Amanda ordered spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce and I ordered tuna spaghetti. We both received tuna spaghetti and both enjoyed it. We surprised the server by declining the second course and paying the bill, as the bowl of pasta had been plenty. From there we walked through meandering passageways to arrive at a Klimt(one of Amandas favourites)showing that Amanda wanted to see.

Amanda at aperitivo time

We finished off the day with some Spritz served by whats locally known as "Cafe Rosso." The bar doesn't actually have a name, just"caffe" pasted over the ancient red facade. We had the good fortune of meeting up with a couple whom we'd met at the campground and had some great conversation. They were a couple years older than us; cruising around Europe with small backpacks to avoid checked baggage! We ended up sharing some wine over pizza with them. They ended up selling us their travel passes so that we could take free bus trips the next day!

Spritz

With the free bus passes we hopped on a meandering boat-bus that took us through Venezia and out to the island of Murano. Murano is famous for its hand blown glass. We got to witness masters at work shaping and blowing glass into fantastic shapes and colours!! Back in Venezia, later on, we checked out San Marco square and it's Basilica. It is Amazing. Each time we see a new church I keep wondering how the new ones trump the old. But San Marco takes the cake the walls are covered in gold painted Frescos. The detail put into every single item is completely mind boggling. Every single inch is carved or painted! They don't allow pictures so all I can post is a shot of the outside. To finish off the day we headed to the Peggy Guggenheim museum and perused some Picasso's and surrealist works.

San Marco's front door

Murano glass in the making

Florence

Firenze reminded me of Paris without the Parisian attitude. The avenues were laid out in similar fashion and the northern Italian people are quieter, much like the French. The view from our campsite was fantastic. We were in an olive grove and Florence stretched out below us. We spent most of the day just walking the streets and finished the night with a nice glass of strong Tuscan wine!



The next morning we checked out some churches as well as the local market. The main cathedral was massive and may have rivaled San Marco on the inside but the three hour line kept us away. The outside was good enough for me. It was all white marble inlaid with green olivine and had curling spires adorning all windows and archways. The market was cool and we had some great pasta from a cafeteria style pasteria, with a little wine of course. In the main square a gelato festival was taking place so we had some for dessert.

That night we headed out on the town with three Americans and two Quebec girls. We left the camping a little late and didn't manage to find a bar but enjoyed wandering the streets. The next morning we wandered the streets checked out Alice's masks. A store and workshop that had fantastic beautiful handmade masks. After that we boarded the train for home....Naples!!