Katy Ereira

The Italian Trip (Part Two)

Next on our itinerary was Milan. However, upon reaching the train station in Verona I felt rather sick. I didn't fancy braving a train so we missed the first one, and the next train was two hours later. We decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble and, sadly, gave Milan a miss. Instead, we made a stop in Lazise - another of the multitude of little towns dotted around the lakeside.

The highlight of our trip was, of course, Venice. Full to the brim with tourists and like many have said before us, not the cleanest place in the world, but other than that was exactly what I expected it to be... quite surreal! There are no roads, only canals going right up to people's front doors!

And no, it's not just you, the tower in the above photo is skewed.

We travelled around by walking on whatever footpaths and bridges existed and also on the Vaporetto - a bit like a water-based tube network with boats running up and down the Grand Canal. I'll tell you, spending just a couple of days travelling by boat will mess you up for ages - I was still rocking from side to side a day after leaving. :(

No trip to Venice would be complete without a visit to St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica. Unfortunately photography is disallowed in the palace and basilica, which is a shame, because the mosaics inside the basilica were simply breathtaking. There is a 'taster' of what's inside on the outside...

We had a bit of a wander in the evening and watched a beautiful sky at dusk.

Then settled down to drink a €13 (£11, $18 US) hot chocolate at Cafe Florian in St Mark's Square. I wasn't too happy at the extortion at first but came round and allowed my mum to purchase it for me. It didn't taste as good as you might expect - it was like a cup of melted plain chocolate. Sickly and not-sweet!

The last stop of our trip was to Riva del Garda - the northernmost town on Lake Garda that was formerly occupied by the Austrians.

Unfortunately it was a horrible day - the only really horrible day we'd had all trip. It was pouring with rain almost the whole time we were there, and we had to make a hasty retreat to a café where we drank coffee until our ferry back to the hotel was due. We did see a black swan, though.

In all I had a lovely trip to Italy. We didn't get to see all of the things we wanted to see, but we still got to see a lot! I highly recommend visiting - places are beautiful and the Italians are largely friendly and the food is nothing short of fantastic (and large portions!). However, be warned that the high numbers of German tourists did not leave a good impression on me, and neither did the lack of queuing in place at various establishments.