Venice, Italy

Wow, what an awesome city! Alright go ahead with the jokes, I know I keep saying I have a new favorite city but come on Venice is absolutely wonderful with the picturesque canal with palaces and wonderful architecture on either side adn boats of all types steaming down the canal water highway. We are staying at the same hotel we stayed at when my family came in 1990. As such they upgraded my mum and me to a room with a view of the grand canal. The only two routines that we have so far in Italy are to have gelato each day (normally our lunch) and then after dinner we watch the live video on tv of the boats outside our window going under the Rialto bridge as we hear the noise of the boats going by and water splashing on the shore.

Speaking of water it is everywhere! And by everywhere I don't mean just the canals but this time of year it is common for the tide to be high, flooding St Marks square and much of the cities small alleys and streets blocks from the canals. Our first day we saw a bunch of people with rubber boots and we laughed at everyone wearing the same boots (black for women and olive green for men). I am now a proud owner of these same Wellington boots. We gave in and bought them this afternoon after trying to avoid every street this morning but stuck without any choice but to wade through three inch deep alleys of water. Now I know why the lady at the front desk laughed when I showed her my "waterproof" boots the first day. I am looking forward to splashing in some big puddles with my new rubber boots that are the current trend in Venice.