Travel Tips

<font color=burgandy><B>Water, water everywhere! The city of Venice is made up of over a hundred islands, connected by four hundred bridges-each leading to a shop, a church or a pizza parlor. Venice's maze of narrow walkways darkened by the shadows of humid palaces makes this a facinating place to visit. You can listen to these buildings crack and squeak as they shift their weight from side to side and hear the sounds of waves as you stroll about in the evening. What more could anyone ask? So walk, get lost, enjoy it.

<font color=magenta><B>I don't care how touristy you think it is, riding in a gondola is part of the Venetian experience and something you must do atleast once.

The gondolier will sing to you-it's part of the deal- but if you ask him to stop the boat enroute so you can get out for a look-n-see while he waits, he will expect more money. All things are negotiable but try to have a handle on the costs before you get in. As seen in this picture, quite typical for people to squoosed into a gondola to save money. Like they say, you have not seen Venice until you've seen it from a gondola-at times it's worth the money.</font><B>

<font color=green></font><B>Needless to say it is often hard to get hotel space in Venice, everyone seems to visit it the same time you are there. You can escape the summer crowd by staying at the beach hotels at the Lido. Others stay in Mestre.
Best trick? Come in for a day trip, Venice is just a 3 hour train ride from Milan. If you 've come to stay for a nite or two then just about any hotel will do. Some just happen to be a little more magical than others. Also consider calling the hotel directly and negotiating, sometimes you get a better deal. If you are visiting several cities in Italy, Venice is the one to splurge on while others can offer more savings. If you are only going for broke once in your life, now is the time to do it.</font><B>

next page - SAN MARCO

<font color=magenta>San Marco is the center of the tourist universe and therefore the center of the highest prices. The farther you go from San Marco, the more the prices drop. Shop on the island where the train station is and you find the best prices in town. The 4 rows of arcades that frame Piazza San Marco can be considered a neighborhood unto themselves. There are easily a hundred shops and cafes here.</font><B>

Try the local fresh pizza served everywhere---but don't expect the loaded ones like we get in the States/Canada--their pizza's a minimalist!

Their Pizza is sophisticated, small and gourmet. These pizza's are not made by a machine but by hand. Far from the 'rough' pizzas of the United States, the pizzas in Europe are amazingly beautiful. In Italy they have a pizza called the 'Quattro Stagioni,' meaning the four stations, where each quarter of the pizza is occupied by a different topping. I never tired of pizza in Europe because each one is unique.

In America we want a product that is cheap and filling; we do not care about how the pizza looks, we want it $10.99 and large enough to feed the family. This flat bread with tomato and melted cheese is a simple food- but the way in which we make it here in America, and the way they make it in Europe, shows us that these two separate places are very different.

<font color=burgandy>In reality, every stop on the water bus in Venice offers a different neighborhood. Not all of them are touristy. Real people do live in Venice. If you ride around the waterbus long enough you will see that some parts of Venice are quite normal--they are just awfully close to water, tho'.</font><B>

CIAO VENICE!