A Day in Venice
On our second day we made it out to Venice. I have never been to Venice before so I was pretty excited. We managed to all wake up super late though so we drove out pretty quick and unfortunately by the time we got there it was already raining. I was pretty bummed but we decided to stick it out. We were already there and we decided just to pray for the weather to turn.
We parked at a place that had an hourly rate not a daily flat rate. Most places were around 26 euros and we parked at a place for 4.50 euro per hour. That was all insane pricing but we figured between 4 people it was worth it. Of course, Venice being Venice, it was extremely expensive just for the tourist value. We also conned ourselves into buying an umbrella on the way into town. We decided to eat something and took an inside break to have lunch and by the time we were done it was basically done raining so our umbrella purchase was pretty much useless.
Venice was beautiful and I'm really glad I went but I think at this point Venice 50-100 years ago would be more beautiful than Venice now. Venice is overrun by tourists and things like gondola rides are 30 minutes for 80 euros, set prices, run by companies, and the overweight middle aged men wearing striped shirts and straw hats with a bow while swiping on tindr with one hand and haphazardly rowing with the other are not quite as romantic as you would think. However, as the above picture was being taken there was one gondola going by that had a man singing who was actually quite lovely to listen to.
We had a good time though running around taking too many photos, eating gelato, and generally just fooling around as much as one can in such a crowded city. Also I hate to be a total party pooper but if it's the canals you're interested in you can find more than your share of those in the Netherlands as well. Amsterdam for example is full of them as well as other little towns much cuter than Venice. They even built an entire zone of their country about 100km square which is insane. Those fake islands that are built in like Dubai? Yeah those are also made by the Dutch.
But! Not to be a total nay sayer, Venice really is beautiful and I would agree that a day there is worth it to anyone simply to see the sights and appreciate the beauty of the city for what it is (once you look past the touristy aspects). It really it quite a feat and I would be sad to have it sink without at least having seen it once.
Also we got some yummy gelato and yes I know the photos are really random still. I'm catching up.
