Uncle Travelling Matt .com — the personal site of Matt Gifford

Has been the most common phase from the Professor over the last two days. Yesterday was my final day in Venezia. We visited the Guggenheim in the morning and then San Michele, the cemetery island of Venice in the afternoon. San Michele houses the remains of many great artists, poets and other famous people, however it was extremely helpfully to have a guide who knew where all these people were. Later on I explored some of the smaller side streets in Guidecca and Castello taking photos. In the evening I returned to the Hostel collected my pack which was in storage and caught the train back to Bologna, so I could pack to fly out first thing this morning.

This morning at breakfast I met an old friend from Canada that just happened to be in Venice with her Art School class—the Canadians I’d met the night before. The dorms are not co-ed so I hadn’t met any of the girls in the group till now, as I was exhausted and went to bed quite early the night before.

So today I tagged around on a free tour with them and their professor who was a very knowledgeable guide of Venice. We visited the Accademia, the most important gallery in Venice in the morning, and then St Mark’s Square and church with its gilded mosaics. It also houses the bones of John the Baptist’s father, which were stolen and brought here. In the afternoon we took in some of the older islands, Lido, Burano and Torcello. Torcello is now protected site and is one of the few places in which the original Venice survives. During the course of the day we saw the houses of Renaissance painter Titan and the philosopher John Ruskin.

I took the EuroStar first class to Venice today, mainly before the damn machine sold me an InterCity ticket for a train I couldn’t get to, ug. The weather has dropped significantly in temperature, and I so haven’t packed correctly for this and am consequently freezing my arse off. Venice is both what I expected and also not what I excepted. Outside the main tourist areas, the place is quiet and the streets bare. You’re left wondering if anyone still lives here. The island that I am staying on, Giudecca, has may “for lease” signs, it brings new meaning to the phrase “death in Venice”. Tonight’s sunset was red with fork lightening out over the Lido—it was quite spectacular as you can see in the photos (image #9). My hostel room was empty when I arrived, 16 beds, 15 vacant, however later in the evening a large group of guys from Canada arrived.

If I thought yesterday was cold I was wrong, but unlike yesterday today was clear and sunny.
Many people said I had to visit Siena, I now understand why. I had pretty much decided I wanted to live in Firenze but now I’m not so sure. Siena is a beautiful medieval city built on a hill and I’ve never been anyway where so many girls have given me butterflies in the stomach in one day!

Today is a public holiday here. This morning it was cold and the streets empty, which made the wait for the train fun. I’d read that Pisa was boring but I decided to go with an open mind. I’m sure it’s a nice place to live but apart from the tower there really isn’t much to see. I planned on spending the day, but left after 45min. All I can say is that they have good marketing dept! lol.

This morning I visited the Colosseum and Palatino. Everyone goes to the Colosseum first and there the ticket queue was quite long. However it’s a combined ticket for both, so I bought mine at the empty Palatino ticket booth and then walked the 100m back to the Colosseum and walked straight in! The building itself quite impressive and entry to the games was free for ordinary roman citizens.

However everyone got a ticket with a seat number, so that the entry and exit of thousands of roman citizens was carefully orchestrated. The best seats were those closest to the arena, held by Senators who had their names craved above them. In the afternoon I explored a bit more of central Roma and did some grocery shopping. Food prices here are close to Firenze, about 5% cheaper overall.

As the graffiti on the wall just outside the train station said… Yesterday I visited the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, since they were free one day only. I arrived at 8am and by then the queue was already 3 streets long! 3hrs later I got in. The chapel was ok, though i’m not sure it was worth the wait. In the afternoon I visited the Trevi & Tritone Fountains and the Spanish Steps.