Oh how I fell in love with Venice! We arrived in Venice late afternoon and spent the night at the campsite before heading in via boat the following morning. Even the thought of heading into the city by boat was exciting, and as we came upon the city, my first thought was wow! It wasn't that it was overly gorgeous but more about seeing the buildings rising above the water. Our first stop was to a Venetian glass demonstration, where we were shown how the hot glass is blown, moulded and bend into shape. Just phenomenal really. Then of course, we were able to look at finished pieces and this is where I really fell in love with Venetian glass. The fact that the majority of it was well and truly above my price range and completely impractical to purchase for a traveller was easy to ignore as I ooh and aahed over it. Following the glass demo and browsing, we were taken to a Venetian lace demonstration, where we were shown the lace and how it is woven - and how many people it takes to do this. Once again, very interesting. We were then given the rest of the day to explore before we would need to meet up late afternoon for our gondola ride. I took off with Dan and Andi to explore and we did what you must do in Venice - get lost! There really is no method to the streets and one canal starts to look like another so you just walk and look. I lost count of the number of jewellery stores I went into, looking at the Venetian glass jewellery and how many pieces I saw that I restrained myself from buying. Of course, I did buy lots of jewellery - it's an absolute must in Venice! Well that's what the three of us told ourselves anyway! And I had a nice big shopping spree - my one and only buying frenzy on the trip so I felt I was entitled. I did fall in love with Venice and I'm so glad that I didn't go do the touristy sightseeing thing as the true beauty of Venice was in it's streets and alleys and just walking around. We met up with the rest of the group late afternoon, after Dan and I managed to feed the pigeons in St Marks Square - boy they tickled as they ate the food. I am glad that they didn't go on my head though like they did with Dan. This was when we go to go on our gondola ride - an absolute must do tourist thing. There were 6 of us - Dan, Jane, Bec, Andi, Anna and myself - and we had ourselves a bottle of wine and had a great time, calling out to everyone we passed, acting like the excited tourists we were. We all laughed when another gondola passed and the guy playing music on it commented that we were all girls and started singing "Sex Bomb" by Tom Jones. It really was a great ride and one of the things I will always remember about Venice. I'm sure when I'll get back to Venice and how much more will have sunk by then but it really was just phenomenal and hit the top 5 list of places I've been to. It was everything and more than I'd imagined and I will always remember the fantastic day I had there and the great people I spent it with.