Venice

Venice is a very nice place to visit, for the fit. This is not the sort of place that is user-friendly for prams, wheelchairs and anyone who can't get about in a sprightly manner. There are bridges over all the canals and no ramps, just loads of steps. There are no buses, taxis, rickshaws or even bicycles. Foot transport and of course the canals.
The most striking thing about Venice has to be the noise. Just a low hum of humanity all over the place, without traffic noise there is a very calming effect and most of the time nobody seems to want to break the spell. The one exception to this is the Gondoliers. They shout at each other all the time, although having no Italian, I had not a clue what about.
The one thing that struck me was the lack of smell. Of course in the backwater places there are probably lots of rats and garbage, but in the more accessible -touristy areas, no mess, no rubbish, and everywhere clean and tidy. I suppose the pigeons see to most of the crumbs etc.
As for the mass of humanity, the Bridge of Sighs viewpoint was an almost solid mass of people with cameras, all vying for the best camera angle. I took a mental picture as my main reference and can refer to that whenever I stop to think about it. Of course I can't show that to anyone, so I took a backup shot or two with the digital camera. (I wonder which image will last longest)
St Mark's Square is very impressive, with it's vendor carts full of tourist tat and guides (licenced and unlicenced) milling about with their crocodiles of followers. I was quite surprised (and impressed) to see a concert of live music at lunchtime in one of the cafes on the square. This in stark contrast to the spectacle that many queued to see in the cathedral and the Campanile.
The Campanile is apparently the tallest building in Venice, unfortunately I can only guess as to the view from the top. My excuse is that it was too hot to queue.
I only wish someone had told me before we set out that there was a dress code for visiting the cathedral, or we may have dressed accordingly. As it was the queue seemed endless.
We arrived by coach, and our first port of call was the taxation box office. The city has decided to levy a charge on all coaches that visit. This charge is supposed to be for "improvements" but no-one has seen a sign of these as yet. A nice little earner is the phrase that springs to mind.
From here we went to the coach park and disembarked, passing through a small shopping area en route to the docks but we were pressing on so quickly that we didn't have time to browse (good, money stayed in pocket for once). Once on the boat, we went out into the lagoon, passed the Grand Canal and landed by even more shops. Four bridges back was the turning to St Marks Square. (The last of these was the viewpoint to the Bridge of Sighs).
If only we didn't have to stay with the guide, we could have taken our time and enjoyed the stroll, but we had an appointment with a gondola so we had to keep the pace up, and it had to be the hottest day of our holiday so far.
The gondolas are an expensive way of getting from A-B, if the experience I have had is any guide. We got a 20 minute spin on one for the princely sum of 120 Euros (£75) and that was shared between six of us. Nice work if you can get it.
Once we had been on our gondola, our time was our own, so we ate next, then strolled for a while before we had to be back for our boat tour of the lagoon. We looked in shop windows at the outrageously expensive clothes and the Moreno glassware which was very impressive.
Everyone told us that Venice is a very expensive place to eat, so we didn't frequent the tables in Saint Marks square, we bought takeaway pizza and fruit from a hole-in-the-wall vendor and it was delicious. On top of a hotel breakfast and knowing there was a hotel evening meal to look forward to, we could manage on a snack.
Our boat tour of the lagoon was a little disapponting, as our guide could not be heard properly over the tannoy system which was largely drowned out by the engine noise. Then a German came on doing her bit (sometimes in English) we totally lost the plot, her accent being so thick. So we contented ourselves with hearing the occasional word and just sat back to enjoy the views and take some pictures.
At the end of that we were instructed to stay on the boat, as it was our transport back to the coach park. Once at the coach park, we had a few mnutes to take in the shops (again) while our driver brought the coach to us and then it was time to set out back again.
One thing to watch out for on the coaches in Italy is that the drivers don't like cleaning the coaches out after each trip so they impose a no eating ban to keep their efforts to a minimum. That can be a problem on a two hour trip of course.

Watersports on Lake Garda

There are many watersports on Lake Garda, we only tried a few, but for those who would like to know, the ones saw were - swimming, fishing, powerboating, pedalos, windsurfing, parasurfing and waterskiing.
Of these we tried the pedaloes and powerboats.
First - pedaloes.
Not being a great fan of anything to do with exercise, I did have my worries about this type of transport, it looks like you do an awful lot of work for very little progress. But Alice really wanted a go, so we went for it.
Only 6 euros for half an hour, so I figured, how bad can it be? Bad enough. The thing was very susceptible to rocking about on the waves created by powerboats etc. and it took an awful lot of pedalling to keep it going, half an hour felt more like half a day. My legs were SO glad when it was over.
The nicest part was that you don't have to pedal all the time, so I got to cool my heels in the lake once or twice.
Then - Powerboats.
The choice is overwhelming, from half an hour for 27 euros to a several hundred euros for a day.
We opted for one at 30 euros for an hour. We got all of us onto it and set off down the lake, carefully at first, then we notched up the speed and really began to enjoy ourselves. Half an hour out and half an hour back was the routine. You can't get lost on a lake of course, just lose you bearings a little when your return trip isn't quite 180 degrees from your outward run. so we ended up peering at the shore, saying things like "Is that where we're supposed to dock?" but no particular problem, just move closer, and there it is.
We also crossed the lake from Limone to Malcesine for a day out on the sunny side of the lake and we were very grateful for the cool breeze generated by the speed of the boat. We all had a good laugh at one parasurfer who just couldn't seem to get going, he was just getting wet...

Our Italian Adventure

Well, I finally did it, got on an aeroplane and flew to parts foreign. Now I know that's not much to the seasoned foreign traveller such as yourself, but it's a pretty big thing for me.
I just hope we don't make a habit of it...
The flight was "interesting", I'm not troubled by movement sickness, I figure if you can flick a motorbike around traffic, then most things should be a breeze, but the actuality of it was that my stomach was all over the place (except where it should be) but thankfully it wasn't vomit inducing. The most worrying moment was on arrival at Manchester, we came to a rather abrupt stop and in the ensuing silence the pilot asked over the tannoy "If any of the cabin crew are still on their feet perhaps they might open the door". Worrying, very worrying...
On our outward journey we were picked up by a taxi at 4am, having spent the night packing so we wouldn't oversleep. Our check in time was 5.10 and flight time 7.10, we finally checked into the hotel at 14.30 local time (+1 hour GMT) so all in all we were kn*ckered. Then at 3pm the biggest thunderstorm the area had experienced hit and lasted until well after we were in bed (early of course) so we went to sleep to the not so gentle sounds of rain on the roof.
We went to the meeting the following morning to be sold some coach trips and of course we took the bait, and we ended up going up a Dolomite (not the car) for the day on Monday and then to Venice on the Wednesday.
Lorraine suffered on the Monday trip so badly that on Tuesday I was off to the Farmaci to get her some Bramamine for the Wednesday trip - I wasn't having her ruining that for herself as well. They worked so well that she used them for the trip home too.
On the coach to Venice, we were sold some extras - namely a gondola ride and a guided tour of the outer lagoon, so we had to have both (well, we had come that far, why not?) so that cleaned us out of cash, down to our last ten euros between the four of us. Of course we had been told that Venice is a very expensive place to eat, so we searched out a hole in the wall and a change bureau (we still had some £20 notes to change) but didn't find either until after we had found a food outlet where I got all four of us fed for a very handy 9.50 euros. Pah - Venice expensive? Not when you know how...)
On Thursday Alice left Lorraine's handbag in reception and we only found out near the bottom of the hill in the minibus, so I stopped the bus and jumped out, ran up to the hotel, retrieved the bag and then ran down the hill to the bottom. I was so bad when I got there, I had to buy a new t-shirt. The walk down the hill normally takes 20 minutes and I ran up most of it and then ran down as well in 20 minutes, not bad for a fatboy like me I thought - and no heart attack either.
The weather was kind to us after the rain on Saturday, getting hotter and drier as the week progressed. The trip to Venice was staggeringly hot and the Friday was the hottest day, so we were glad of the boat trips on both those days.
As you may have noticed, food is something of a pastime of mine, so of course we had to try the local stuff, we had spagbol and margerita pizza 3 times in all, and I must admit I haven't had better, but the real thing to write home about was the ice cream, but of course I didn't have much of that - only one a day.
It took me until Monday to find a waitress who had enough about her to persevere with my request for sweeteners for my coffee until at last she understood and brought me "dolceficante" upon which she insisted on learning the English for it, and in return I learnt the Italian for it, because up till then I had my coffee without and I must admit I still prefer it with.
Lorraine had us lug our walking boots all that way, and we never even unpacked them. It was a bit of a non-starter because of her mum being with us. If there is ever a next time I'm not loading myself up like that, sandals are plenty good enough for Italy at all times. She also had us take fleeces "for when we go up the mountains" and they just stayed in the room too...
All in all though it was a good holiday (albeit expensive), even though somebody lied to us when they said there was an internet café in the town because try as I might I couldn't find it.