Venice

27 – 28 June 2010

We sleep in differing types of accommodation which range from hostel accommodation (Barcelona) which has no permanent Contiki presence to venues actually owned and ran by Contiki (Beaujolais). Mostly we have been in campgrounds which have a special set up for Contiki use but also cater to the general public. Whenever we arrive in a new location which has a Contiki presence the Contiki reps will wave as we approach on the coach and then one rep will jump on and tell us a little about the place and our accommodation. Ray likes us to have a little fun with the reps and make it a little hard for them while their trying to run though their speech. For instance in Paris whenever the rep said ‘you’ or ‘your’ we all laughed like a stereotypical Frenchman; it was very funny. In Venice instead of laughing we all got out our cameras, set them on permanent flash and took photos of the rep whenever he said ‘you’ or ‘your’; again, very funny.

The thing to do in Venice is to get lost; I was actually told this and was naturally happy to oblige.

To get to the ancient island city of Venice we took a boat from our campground.

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As a group we were given a lace making demonstration which was average, and afterwards a glass blowing demonstration which was amazing; watch the video.

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After these two demonstrations we had a brief walking tour of the streets of Venice and were then given the rest of the day to do as we wished. In Venice I didn’t do a whole lot but I did enjoy myself. I enjoyed my first pizza in Italy (Siciliano; anchovies, capers and olives – delicious), I also discovered how the Italians make a little money out of restaurant goers.

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I checked out a museum of Leonardo Da Vinci’s work which was fascinating.

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