VENEZIA

Today we venture to ITALIA!!!! First stop Venice!!!! I have always wanted to visit Venice so I couldn't even comprehend what was in store! First interesting fact about Italia is there is no such thing as a latte. If you were to order a latte they would just give you milk. Their lattes area a macchiato (shot of coffee) with latte (the milk). Second, if you were to order food you have to tell the cashier what you want, and pay for it, in which they give you a slip. You show the slip to the person who has the food and then they give you what you want - Kind of a backwards to Australia.

After our lunch stop I kind of had a dilemma, where my drink bottle leaked throughout my entire hand bag, which of course was holding my phone and camera. GAH! So thanks to Jye who helped me air it all out they did end up working, but for Venice I had to use my phone as a camera.

Finally we make it to Venice, and we get off the bus and go straight to a boat, which was our cab in to Venice city. Once we got off the boat, there it was Venice! And by 5-6pm that night, the floor starts to flood, where you have to walk on pathways built above the floor line.

It was huge, it was packed, and it was hot! I was not fully ready for this kind of heat so most of the girls had to change to deal with the heat. One thing about Italia, and I know it's their culture, but the men..... They love to check girls out, they just stare and make it very blatant, the only thing I did not enjoy about that day I think.

So first of all, we went on a walking tour away St Marks square, where its famous for all the pigeons. We did some touristy shopping from the locals, who of course love the attention any tourists give them, and we had to purchase a silk scarf from them to put around our legs. To enter a church you must cover your knees and shoulders as a sign of respect. So we covered up and went for a walk through. Afterwards we went to the top of a very high building in Venice which overlooks the entire city - The views were absolutely amazing!

After that we had to buy our VERY FIRST ITALIAN GELATI! Was so excited as I love Gelati, but as I was ordering I cut my leg in the shop and to this day its still there and will probably leave a scar, something to remind me of Venice :)

We went on a walk to the other side, over a foot bridge which was absolutely awesome, as to cross over you could fully see the water, the gondolas, the shops and the atmosphere. We stopped and got our very first lice of ITALIAN PIZZA!!! Which was delicious! We went to the markets and roamed around.

We met the entire group for our Gondola rides! Yay! So we walk over to the Gondola station and go to pick our what wine we would like to bring on the ride with us, we chose a peach champagne. The ride was awesome fun, just a nice peaceful ride around the city exploring a different side of everything.

After our Gondola ride we went to dinner, which of course was an array of pasta and cold meat dishes, yum! And then walked back to the boat, where we started to see the water coming in, ready to flood. Once on the boat there was a top deck where we got to see the sunset on the water, it was awesome. The Italians had their music playing, but we asked if we could plug our iPhone in and listen to our music. They graciously let us, so me Sam and Jye decided to have a bit of a party on the boat back to the bus. Was awesome fun! An absolutely great day! And great start to our Italian adventure :)