Day 12

Yesterday was a drive day again. We travelled from our campsite in Rome to Venice, which took from about 7am until about 3:30. Afterwards, we had the chance to take an hour to get our bags into our rooms, rest and relax a short while before going on a walking tour of Venice. 

Before we met our tour guide, we stopped at a pizza place recommended by Ali, our Expat leader. We got a huge piece of pizza, a big pop (some got beer) and a generous portion of icecream for 5 euros. It was delicious and quite honestly the best icecream I’ve ever had. Unfortunately I have no idea what it was because the name was in Italian. It did have a lot of flavour to it though, including sweet tiny little orange squares.

The walking tour of Venice was hilarious. We had an older tour guide that looked like a nurse. She was very interested in Latin and the Italian language and enjoyed explaining what all the street names meant in English. She stopped and said “And here we have a tree!!!” and went on to tell us how it was a rare type of tree for Venice. I thought it was hilarious how much passion she had for the area and how much joy she had in explaining all the little things. Some of the group were not quite as entertained.

Venice itself was beautiful! Canals and boats everywhere including water taxi's! There were amazing structures, but the thing I liked most about it was the tiny little corridors in between buildings and the fact that a lot of the traveling from one place to the next was done by boat.

After the walking tour, most of the group went back to the campsite because there was a big pool party and drinking thing going on. Matt and I decided to hang back in Venice and meet back at the campsite later. We spent forever looking for a street market (we didn’t know the name of the market or where we were on the map) but eventually came across it. Matt got a Guy Fawkes mask and I got a fancy black and white mask with music notes on it for our masquerade ball later today. We enjoyed seeing what Venice looked like at night and just wandering around really. 

Eventually we got back to the bus stop. We hopped on the same bus we used to get there, looked at the front of the bus and realized that the stops weren’t actually listed electronically or on the bus stops outside like they were in London. It was alright though. Matt talked to the driver while I was chatting with one of the locals from Venice and we got it figured out. We eventually made it home around 11pm, realized that the pool was already closed, showered and got some sleep.