Our 3rd trip of 2015 was to Italy, the Venetian Riviera. On the Friday I worked from home and about 5pm I had a missed call. I googled the number and it turned out it was lowcostholidays. I tried to call back but within 5 mins I had an email and it turned out that our hotel was not booked properly. Rich had tried to book our transfer again with the hotel that day and this must of triggered the sequence of events which led to the phone call. It was a bit stressful as we were leaving in 10 hours. We were given an option for another hotel and when I called them, that was the only choice we had. I agreed with the lady on the phone they would cover our transfers to and from the airport (although at the date of writing this, its now with the customer relations team so who knows if they will pay it!!)

We were up at 3am to go to Stanstead for our flight. We met Sophie and parked the car up and she dropped us up to the airport. After our 2 hr flight we landed in a cloudy looking Italy and it started to rain :( We got a taxi and got dropped to the Ambiscatari hotel. It was a pleasant hotel and was a stones throw from the beach so we had some nice views if the beach. Luckily we could check in so we chilled out for an hour before we headed out for some food. We found a little restaurant and ordered two pizza's and chips, they were massive. The service was pretty slow and then randomly this woman came over, started speaking at me in Italian and sat down in the booth beside me. Everyone looked over and then the manager came and turfed her out. He literally took her by the arm and threw her out, I felt a bit bad for her. We then went, got some water and sat by the pool as the sun was slowly coming out. A few hours later I turned over and must of doozed off, next thing I woke up and it had stormed over and people were leaving. I got ready and we went to sit up in the covered outdoor area, literally 5 mins later the heavens opened and it poured down. People were dashing for cover. We then went and got ready for dinner. Dinner was served in the basement and we went and choose some starter bits. A waiter came over and asked our room number then told us we had to sit at a predefined table so up we moved! The dinner was a table with a mix of starter bits like parma hams, mozerella balls and cherry tomatoes (my favs) pasties, fish dishes and meat dishes. Then you could go and choose mains and they had a variety each night, fishes, meats, pastas etc. Then there was a dessert table of about 3-4 options. This was the normal setup every night. It was delicious food.

On the Sunday we went and checked out the breakfast, they did a cooked breakfast of eggs, beans, frankfurters, bacon, eggs you could boil yourself (learnt the hard way on that one) hams and cheeses, cakes and pastries. I had toast with ham and cheese every day and a croissant which had apricot or custard in.. I loved the custard ones.sat by the pool and relaxed, we went out for some lunch which again consisted of pizza which had chips on :0 This seemed to be common around town. Towards the end of the day we went to sit on the beach as by half 5 the sun disappeared behind the trees. Rich didn't like the sunloungers much so he left after a while. A party kicked off in the beach hut which was a cafe, apparently twice a month there is a party at this place or another one down the beach. I tried the first Prosecco of the holiday which went down a treat. After dinner we went for a wander up the strip. It was endless restaurants, take away joints, bars, shops which went on for miles. We went and got our tickets into Venice via bus and boat as well, they cost about €20 each. We took some pics in the square, we were near the Piazza Millano which had the usual water fountains. It was a busy strip considering it was almost end of season.

On Monday we went to Venice. We left about 10ish, it took a good part of 2 hours. The bus ride was about 40 mins and we just missed a boat so we waited for about half an hour. The boat was about half an hour. When we arrived we walked along the main canal and there was lots of lookie lookie men and they were selling lots of selfie sticks, bags and other tat. We first went for a wander to the San Marco square and queued to go inside the Cathedral which was free. You paid extra to go into different parts of the church. A girl came and gave me a shawl to cover my shoulders. It was very pretty inside but sadly I wasn't allowed to take any pictures. We then wandered around multiple lanes and across bridges finally settling in a little cafe near Giovanni Saul to have some pasta. I went for Ravioli which was delicious. We wandered around and stumbled upon a music museum which was inside this church, it was called the Leonardo Da Vinci.

We then headed for the Romeo bridge and we think we found it but Rich couldn't remember. We stopped to pick up a mask magnet and some gelato. I had mint and hazlenut and it was yummy. We wandered over a big main bridge which was very Venetian and pretty. We then went down one alley and found gondolas which took you across the canal and back for €2 EW. I managed to convince two young couples to share a gondola with us but then we couldn't find an available one which was really annoying. We wandered off and then I saw two young Chinese guys saying they were thinking about a gondola so I approached them and they were in. One of them had a white streak in my hair and reminded me of the guy from the hangover. These were clearly two rich guys as they had been to London 10 times and were doing a Euro trip, they had been to Spain and were heading on. He also said he had stayed in a posh hotel on the main canal that cost £300 a night and was tiny so clearly money was not a worry. They were very nice and we took pics for each other. Towards the end he said are you going to ask how much we pay because it can be €80, €120 or €160 and I was like it's definitely €80. Afterwards we ended up back in the main square and took some pics in front of the cathedral. We then decided to get on the boat that was leaving soon, it had been a lovely day exploring Venice.

On Tuesday we had another pool day and the hotel put on some free pasta for lunch. Rich opted to get something out and had a chicken burger sandwich, it was rather tasty. Must of had something to do with the amount of mayo there was in it. It was a lazy day and a good book reading day and there wasn't many people around so we had the pool to ourselves. I liked the inflatable chair, was very relaxing sitting in that and floating around the pool. Wednesday was the waterpark day. We walked to Aqualandia which was 10 mins away and was great fun. It had 15 slides and it had a pirate theme to it and was fairly busy. You were given an electronic wrist band and charged everything back to it. We reserved two sunbeds down by the pool in the non sandy part which had a locker attached to it. We locked our stuff up and headed for the slides. The slides mostly were for 2 plus people. There were only a few that were for 1. There was a really good one which was for 3 + which was a pain. We went on a few different ones, there was one that had three swirly slides which was for 2 so we did those. We then headed for the bigger slides and went on one that was in the dark and dipped twice. Rich went first in this one and it dropped a bit then slowed down and then we went down another dip. It was really good fun. There was one which was higher and was a round one but it was a bit slow and boring in our opinion. The one which needed 3+ was really high and was basically a vertical drop from the top which looked great and a bit scary. We hung around to try find some people but no one seemed to be waiting. We then went on a few slides that we could go down on our own. One was face first on a yellow float and the other there was no float. The second time i went on the no float one, i went face first and my top came down half way down it, embarrassing. and i was fumbling trying to pull it back up before i hit the water. There was a lazy river one which was good fun and we ended up going backwards at times. After a while we went back and there was an aqua class which I joined the end of. They then had a pirate peter pan show on and then an aquabike class which both Rich and I did. It was only about 15 mins and consisted of biking and then some exercises out of the bike but using it to hold onto. We then relaxed a bit before there was a tumbling blocks routine which was gymnastics and women suspended from long drapes. We went and had some burger meals and then watched the first bungee jump of the day. We did another round of water slides and then I managed to spot a young girl waiting by the 3+ tall and vertical drop slide and asked her if she needed someone to go on it with, she did and brought her brother along. They wanted to go at the front but Rich had to go on front as he was the heaviest and biggest. It was brilliant and would of done it again but it was quite a lot of effort to drag the float up there. The last show of the day was another one on the pirates ship with a damsel in distress and captain jack and a man did dives from really high off the boat, it was so impressive. We then collected our stuff as it was nearing 6pm and closing time and paid the bill and left. We wandered back via the beach front and there were loads of people, older men playing bowls. It was sweet to watch them and we looked at the beach front hotels. In our first week at the hotel, it was mainly Germans but by mid week this had switched and it was mostly English. It was entertaining as a few people tried to talk to me in German but obviously it was lost on me. We showered and relaxed before dinner.

Thursday was another pool day and the hotel put on some free pizza for lunch which was nice again. They did a margarita and ham pizza and needless to say Rich and I ate loads. One of the other visitors in the hotel almost knocked a woman down trying to get to the pizza :) Friday and another pool day. Rich went out to get lunch and we had chicken burgers from the same place as Tuesday but they weren't as good. It was much hotter on the Friday then it had been all week which was great. I had taken the sun factor to 15 in the last few days to see how I got on, the sun was not as strong as other holidays. We both picked up nice tans and when i got home most people commented - which never happens. We went and did the usual routine to get ready for dinner and then we went and took some pics on the beach and on a dock with a few drinks. It was a nice way to end the last eve before hometime.

Saturday, we had breakfast as usual and then went to check out. We didn't spend that much on the bar, about €40. We sat by the pool all day and it was probably the hottest day of the holiday. Rich popped out for sarnies and we had those by the pool. As the sun did it's usual disappearing act at 5.30ish I went to have a shower at the outdoor shower and change into my travel clothes. We went to have a last bit of dinner which of course consisted of pizza, I went for a cheese, tomato, mushroom and olives which was delicious. We then got picked up at 7.30 and went to the airport. On route we saw the trucks which was carrying people for the parade which was heading for the strip. They were all lit up and looked a bit like the floats you see at Nottinghill Hill. It was a small airport so not much to do. They had the massage chairs, should of tried one of those. We landed around 11.20 which was earlier then the schedule but it took us 40 mins to get through passport control, it was a shambles!! We got home about 1.15 and crashed out. It was a lovely, relaxing week away in the sun with lots of good food, sun and prosecco.