Austria and Italy under the sunshine-V

This is the tourist place "par excellence". I arrived here in the middle of the afternoon on Labour Day. That was a shock; there were so many people. I liked Austria because of it's serenity and it's calm but the city they called La Serenissima was really different. The steps in front of the train station were so crowded I could hardly go down.

Quick Tips:

Make reservations!!! This is the best way to really enjoy your arrival here because you won't have to go on a half a day hunt to find something.

Best Way To Get Around:

You can walk pretty much everywhere if you can find your way but I suggest you take the vaporetto, it is not fast but it is part of what makes this town different.

This youth hostel situated near Campo Santa Maria Formosa is excellent. It's a little bit far from San Marco but it's really quiet. The rooms are OK and clean. Same thing for the showers. This is a good place to meet fellow travellers. But it's not easy getting a bed here as a lot of schools go there when they are in Venice.

Right at the entrance of Piazza San Marco you can visit the old seat of the Venitian government, the Palazzo Ducale or the Doge's Palace. This highly decorated palace let's you see how the old venetian emipre was run. If you're not surrounded by a mass of tourists it's easy to imagine the XVth century politicians deciding the fate of a man denounced by an anonymous letter.

Politics apart, it's the art the really stands out here. Everything is gigantic, from the sculptures that surround the Sala dei Giganti, to the paintings that decorate pretty much every chamber. You can easily see where these politicians put the money of the state.

Venice is known for it's pigeons and you have to watch out. Here's a little example of why.

I was walking around in the maze that is Venice. I had just passed in front of a cybercafé when I thought, "Hey, it's 9am back home, that's the time my friend starts to work. I should write him an e-mail to brag about the really nice vacation I'm having. Yeah that's what I'll do!!!" This is just the time when a pigeon decided that my head would make an excellent place for him to drop it's excrement. So he did, right in the middle of it.

Venice is a place built on the water, well that particular morning I think I searched for a fountain over 45 minutes and when I finally found one it was 200 metres from where I started my search. After that I wrote an e-mail to my friend, telling him what had just happened, he really laughed a lot. Since then I try to be a little bit more humble when I talk about my vacations in Europe and never brag about them cause you never know what can happen.