It's been a bit of a rubbish and stressful year so we decided to go away for a week and visit some places we've been wanting to for years - Venice, Verona and Lake Garda!
We were staying a 35min bus ride from Venice so we spent three days there exploring, it was amazing and would love to have a city break there some time. It was everything I had hoped and more, stunning! Crazy hot too. We had a guide for 2/3 days who was from Venice so knew all the little back streets, incidentally his mother is Scottish so he spoke with a Glaswegian accent - very confusing but brilliant!
St Mark's square was filled to the brim with fellow tourists but busy and exciting, don't stop anywhere forms coffee though or it will cost you €15! It's surrounded by beautiful hotels and shops every corner is a Kodak moment. You can't not indulge is some culture there so we took a trip inside the Basillica, I love that it's decorated with stolen loot from Istanbul.
And before you wonder, of course we went in a gondola! The average price for one is €100!!! So we shared one with some other guests we got on with from our hotel so it worked out no more expensive than a punt, again it was everything we had hoped and not too congested compared to some images we'd seen, only in certain places.
Verona as well was beautiful and everything you expect and hope for from an Italian town. Being the ultimate tourists we had to of course check out Julie's balcony, which was insane and you had to fight to climb onto the statue to give her a cheeky grab. We also visited Romeo's which wasn't as impressive but still worth a visit. We also got to check out the impressive amphitheatre, one of the best preserved in Italy.
Lake Garda was simply stunning, hot and blue! I didn't expect it to look so tropical, the water was so clean and again the heat was crazy but I could easily imagine spending a week there.
I think all I ate in the last week was pasta, pizza, tiramisu and gelato. The gelato!! Incredible, high piles of it on every corner with amazing flavours, my favourite being nutella, tiramisu and kinder egg! To be honest I could have stayed just for those... I've also found a new favourite tipple in the form of Aperol Spritz - a typical north Italian drink - yum!
Nom!
Lovely photos - looks like you had a great time. I smiled seeing the Aperol spritzers; we had those in Salzberg where they were made with fizzy wine.
ReplyDeleteDidn't realise how crazy expensive a gondola ride was!
I love Italy especially Venice!! I didn't go on the gondola as it was too expensive :( Florence, Sienna and Rome are highly recommended - Florence was my favourite of the three :)
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