Jack & Jo's European Adventure

I remember as a little boy the first time I learnt of Venice and being amazed at the fact that such a town existed with boats and waterways to get around rather than cars and roads. The images back then were of peaceful waterways with people being transported by gondola's or walking hand in hand along the paths, quite a romantic scenario was conjured up. In reality the place is a crazy mass of people moving along the paths shoulder to shoulder and clashing head on with one another, boats of all descriptions vying for enough of the waterways, to make progress either up or down stream, it is utter chaos. The local Italians, rather than serenading and wooing any visitors, are intent on extracting as many dollars out of your pockets, as they can, it is so bloody expensive! Then the sun starts its way down in the West and the people or should I say day trippers, start to make a mass exit for other parts of the world, this is not the best time to board one of the many overloaded vaporetta's that ferry you up and down the canals of Venice. Once they have gone, you do find some peaceful little canals and walkways, at the restaurants it is now easier to obtain a good table and in some parts, such as San Marco Square, the bands come out to play, it is here you find the romance and beauty of Venice, something everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime, Viva Italia!

It was sad leaving Lake Como, it was so peaceful and beautiful there, way to short a time so we will return one day, don't think I'd go anywhere else to stay than the Nest on the Lake, fantastic digs runby lovely people in a great location.

The trip from Lake Como to Venice commenced at 8:00AM with a walk to the bust stop along a very narrow road with blind bends and no paths, had to suck my tummy in a couple of times, The bus trip along the mountains and edge of the lake has breath taking views, in between the flashes of villa's alongside the road, you are so close to them you dare not sneeze in case you head butt one of them as you go by. The trip is only 22 kilometers, but it takes an hour to cover with stops along the way for passengers and at contra flow points where the bends are so tight and narrow they have a traffic light at either end to control opposing traffic flows.

Thankfully there is a coffee shop at the train station so we had breakfast here, 2 coffees with croissants came to 5 euro so pretty good value. We had to take train back to Milan, then another train to Venice, our train to Milan was running late and we had a laugh at the expense of an American couple, whom boarded a local train that arrived at the scheduled departure time, the look on their faces as they head off and realised everyone else was still on the platform was priceless, what made it funny though was the woman screaming to her husband as they sprinted past us towing their cases "Don't worry about which carriage it is, just jump on the next one" afraid they would miss it!

The terrorists in Venice had a good old chuckle at our expense, when after arriving at the train station, we brought our tickets for the vaporrota (ferry), we then boarded and found a comfy seat at the back, packed all our bags in the corner and prepared for the 30 minute journey through the canals. The vaporrota filled up to the brim, standing room only, so we were lucky to have good seats. Then the boat arrived and everyone began to board, we could not get on as it was full and had to wait for the next one, it turned out our comfy seats were part of the waiting platform, not the vaporrota!

Joey loves Venice, she been so excited to get here, now she is she is go go go!