Europe 2007

Don't come to Italy to get a good Italian meal. Well, that's the message Venice has sent so far, anyway. We've had a couple of good, cheap, slices of pizza, but after two dinners, it's been two duds, particularly tonight.

An italian restaurant in the heart of a classical italian town run by non-italian asians should have been warning enough, but we ate there anyway. Well Nick ate there, Lisa just looked at her meal in disgust and promptly had it returned to the kitchen. In short, it seemed as though they had (barely) prepared our pasta dishes earlier that day, then added a LOT of salt and (barely) microwaved them before serving them up approximately two minutes after we ordered them. Yummy. At least we didn't pay for Lisa's meal, which, incidentally, consisted of packet pasta, one or two mushrooms and some salty water. We'll reiterate, yummy.

Other than the crappy dinners, Venice has been brilliant. It's a beautiful, if slightly smelly, town (it's definitely not a city, not after Paris), with amazing architecture, and pigeons and American tourists in ample supply. Neither of us can work out which is more annoying...

Venetian View

Our hotel is a genuine bargain, and a real find, thanks to Lisa. It's situated right on the Canal Rio della Fava, and our room is huge, comfortable, and most importantly - air conditioned. It's even got a TV! Unfortunately it seems all it shows is American TV shows badly dubbed by Italian Midgets (they all have very high, almost hysterical voices).

View from our window

Our Gondola - post gondle

We were warned, but there is a very, very loud garbage gondola that churns past our window at about 5 in the morning, and seems to idle there for the next two hours. Oh well, at least it ensures we get up for brekkie, which is by far the best freebie we've encountered on our travels. A very tasty cereal, peaches, abricot cornettos (that's apricot croissants for you non-euros), and of course, nutella, which seems to be the staple diet of everyone in the EU.

Two things worthy of note - The alchohol here is tres cheap. Want a tally of Becks? $8? $6? Try $1.60. Yep, it's pretty easy to get sloshed, unfortunately italians frown upon it. Strange people.

The other thing, is the bar we visited tonight. Tres Cool, Tres Jazzy, and the ubiquitous cheeky italian guy behind the bar. Served Nick some very nice wine that wasn't on the list though. And got Lisa nice and tipsy (Long Island Ice tea...).

Our Internet place is closing now, so that's all for tonight. So until next time, Buon Serra.

Bissous and Ciao Bella, Nick and Lisa