BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL VENICE

THIS IS THE VIEW FROM OUR APARTMENT WINDOW

Well here we are in beautiful water logged Venice and we love it, we all stated that we could live here easily, Riley is already planning the purchase of a boat !. We had a direct train from Rome which meant we didnt have to change at Mestre on the mainland. The train over here travels along 4 klms of causeway across the sea and you get your first glimpse of Venice this way which had Mia nearly bouncing on her seat. We stepped out of the station and there in front of us was the Grand Canal with all its hustle and bustle, we couldnt stop grinning. Viv ? the taxis were 35 euro just to get in and then extra to take us to the hotel which would have been 3 mins away by water...i passed and we walked. VIEW FROM WINDOW IN THE OTHER DIRECTION, LOVELY AREA.

We did catch a water bus one day and that was 19 euro to go 4 stops, about 5 mins on the water...so expensive. We walk everywhere and when we looked at our map tonight we've actually covered a lot of the islands on foot. THE GRAND CANAL

Its so lovely to walk around here, no traffic, no bikes..only people and canals, it really is a perfect place and i love it and will definatley come back one day for longer. RILEY AND MIA ON THE RIALTO BRIDGE

Its bitterly cold and we had light snow yesterday which got us very excited. Today was like a king tide and the water was all over the paths and people were putting plastic bags on their feet to get through it ! we now know why there are so many gum boots for sale in the shops...very stylish ones of coarse. Mia has fallen in love with all the Venetian masks and would love to take a big one home but there is limited space in our bags so maybe next time. Its hard to describe Venice, its so different to the rest of Italy, the people are lovely and very tolerant of us foreigners, its clean and so picturesque.The lifestyle is unrushed and laid back and i love having all this water around which is sort of aqua blue and clear.....i love Venice ! its strange to not see cars everywhere, you dont need them here. Anyway tomorrow we say a sad goodbye to Venice and head to Salzburg, Austria on the night train. I just had a text from Christine and she and the boys are there, its snowing and has a day time temp of -11....yes -11, thats what i just saw on the weather page, brrrrrr....she told me not to be a princess ! to late lassie. Riley has already formed up snow ball throwing teams, himself, Alf, Iain and Ross against Christine, Karin, Mia and me.....i dont like his chances. The cold is actually not too bad, the only time we suffer is when the wind blows in our face then our faces freeze over, we wear layers....tee shirt, long sleeve woollen shirt, jumper then padded jacket, leggings under jeans with thick long socks and walking boots, thick gloves, beanie and then hood on jacket....its not pretty or stylish, not on me anyway, but i really dont care because i'm warm, Riley looks good and Mia would look good in a hessian bag and i'm beyond caring as long as i'm warm. So till next time Ciao from Venice/Venezia
I have just tried to upload photos but the connection here is so slow that it keeps timing out so i will do it from Austria, hopefully i will have a stronger connection there. I know its boring without photos.
Suzanne, thanks for having sammy, sad about Suzie and if Qantas go on strike it means we get to stay longer !