A day on the City on Water

19:28

This week I've been attempting to do what most people call 'relaxing' but what I prefer to call 'wasting time doing nothing,' therefore instead of lying on a sunbed soaking up the 30-degree heat doing the relaxing thing, I'm being productive. Hats off to moi.

Myself, my dearest madre and my brother hopped on a flight to Italy on Friday to spend a week near Venice, and a few days ago, we got a water taxi over to the City on Water to soak us up a little Italian culture.

This is my first trip to Italy (if you don't count Sicily last year *tb to those fab times*) and so I didn't really have any expectations but holy lord, Italy is beautiful.

Venice is deffo one of those places you go to enrich your love life as again, thanking the Lord for his fine fine work, the local folk that wander the streets are nothing short of spectacular.

We walked through St.Mark's square which was cramped with tourist groups, but passed 'Florian' - the tea-room and cafe that has provided coffee and inspiration to any artist who's ever meant anything to anyone, and then walked passed all the high-end shops such as Dior, Chanel, and Burberry whilst I looked longingly and the shoes and hand-crafted runway pieces. We then began to walk through the back streets as they contained fewer tourists and were a lot cooler and showed a bit more of the Venice that's hidden behind the screen of commercialism.

After venturing through the quieter and shadier back streets of the city, we passed the church in which Vivaldi was baptised (see photo below), and my heart melted a little bit as I hold him closer to my heart than Mozart and would even go as far as saying I prefer Vivaldi to Tchaikovsky - a risky statement, I know, but I'm throwing it out there regardless.

Vivaldi was here

After witnessing a snippet of Vivaldi's life we hopped into a gondola and paddled along the canals and through the streets for a good half an hour or so. The gondolas are a lot bigger than I thought they would be but it was soooo cute and is deffo something that's on the list to do with the future hubby. Then we decided to stay on the water a little longer and so we plodded over to the water taxis and cruised along the Grand Canal for a good forty-five minutes.

The water taxi showed a lot more of Venice than what we saw on the gondola but both are definitely worth doing. And both made for some killer Snapchat story pics - presenting me as a well-travelled, well-cultured human being.

After indulging in the canal-floating lifestyle, we went back to St.Mark's square; which we'd briefly visited earlier, and bought ourselves a couple of Venetian Spritz's, which are truly such a gift and I honestly feel so blessed to have tried and approved this alcoholic concoction.

By this time the sun had set and the majority of the tourists had staggered back to the comfort of their hotels, so the gentle lights in St.Mark's square were turned on and the musicians came out of their hidy-holes to perform in front of the bars and restaurants. What was a few hours before a crowded tourist square, suddenly shifted into a quiet, romantic spot.

It's insane that such a beautiful and different place is only a two our flight away from London, but after only a day in Venice, it's safe to say I'm in love, with Venice and Italy.

Please enjoy the gazillion photos I took of the city and consider yourselves blessed that you have now been educated about the beautiful city on water by someone who has spent only a day there; you're welcome.

Ciao xx