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On the life-affirming waters of Venice

There are few things in life as beautiful as Venice. To the point where this blog post could have been entirely pictorial.

I mean...


Just amazing...

Words fail me...

And so on...

But apart from the dazzling light, glistening water, pleasing bridges and, dear god, the food, Venice was a true delight because I visited this Italian jewel with my sister. 

We arrived by train and although we were ladened down with luggage, (mostly) enjoyed our twenty-five minute stroll through the city to our hotel. Our stomaches growled with every restaurant we walked by, tastebuds exploding on our tongues in anticipation of the delights we would partake in as soon as we could put down our fucking luggage.

Once rid of any hinderances, we again stumbled down hidden laneways and tourist-free streets since our hotel was a little away from the over-crowded areas around Rialto Bridge and Piazza San Marco. As we perused delicious-looking places, we finally collapsed into chairs outside a restaurant that was the second closest. With the first (of many) bellinis refreshing our souls, we scoffed delicious pizza and planned the days before us. Our main priorities, apart from ingesting as much pasta, pizza and red wine as possible, were the Peggy Guggenheim museum and the Biennale Architettura 2016. 


There are few joys in life as wonderful as drinking a Bellini in Venice (despite the menacing pigeon)

Trying to describe Peggy's art collection would take at least an entire book.

I still can't quite believe I attended the Venice Biennale.
I can't adequately describe the once-in-a-lifetime goosebump situation I experiences after visiting both these amazing Venetian institutions.

And then we drank more.

I am drinking tea while writing this post and wishing I was back in Venice.
This amazing trip was not, however, the first time my sister and I had made the journey to this picture-perfect city.

Oh no.

Way back *ahem* years ago, when we were extremely fresh-faced, we visited Italy for the first time. All major cities were included in our itinerary and while we were eager to visit them all, the anticipation of visiting Venice was unlike anything else.

And we arrived. And it was beautiful. And we felt very worldly and European and fabulous.

Then we tried to use our bankcards to take out cash because of course much food needed to be eaten, and gondola rides had to be taken.

Now, I need to remind everyone reading this that when we were in Venice the first time, all young and fresh-faced as I've previously mentioned, the year began with a '19XX'. Using a bankcard in an overseas ATM was still a novelty and always had risks attached. Travellers cheques were still very much the norm (and of which we had no more).

Okay, so there we were, at an ATM, ready to spend.big.

But

we

were

denied.

Yep, we thus spent an entire day wandering around Venice without a penny to either of our names and feeling very un-wordly, un-European and un-fabulous.

And so our re-return was extra special for both of us. Because sometimes you do need to go back and have another go. Like *ahem* living back in London again.

And, I mean, you can never visit Venice too many times.

You really can't.



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