There's no slow introduction to Venice when you arrive by train, as soon as you step out of the train station you are faced with the Grand Canal and the hive of activity that surrounds it; the water taxis, gondolas and many, many people! Armed with the directions to our hotel on google maps, we ventured into the maze of little streets. Before long, the maps stopped working but luckily on most of the buildings were signs for either Rialto Bridge or St Marc's square…knowing that our hotel was a street away from Rialto Bridge, we put faith in the signs and carried on. Obviously being the middle of the day, it was rather busy, so trying to get through some of the little streets with our big bags was a little testing. Nevertheless, we made it in one piece (although a little warm!). It's amazing how quickly the throng of tourists can dwindle when away from the 'main attractions'. Only a road away from Rialto Bridge was our hotel and it was so peaceful and quiet! Anytime we heard an engine though, we expected to see a car drive past….but no, it was just a boat winding its way down the canal!

Again, we found ourselves rather hungry after an early train, so went in search of some sustenance. Luckily a few little lanes away was a pizza restaurant, and as with Florence, we sat down to eat in the late afternoon…no chance we were going to need dinner later! After a quick wander around St Marc's Square we had a little chill before heading out in the evening. As we'd had a later lunch, we managed to share a portion of chips for dinner...at least we're being careful with our money!!!

Right, a full day in Venice…we very quickly wrote off the idea of taking a gondola ride - at 80 Euros for half an hour, that was just a little bit(!) outside of our budget. Instead we just wandered, taking it in turns to work out which way direction we went. Venice it seems is quite small and easily covered on foot in a day and once you are away from the main streets, it's so peaceful and quiet! Later on we found a lovely little bar right up on the edge of the main Venice island (Ristorante da Alvise - if anyone is planning a trip to Venice!) that did some reasonably priced gin. It had great views out over the sea to mainland Italy and all the other little islands off the coast, a lovely place to watch the world go by. Unfortunately, the table we were sat at was reserved from 7pm and although we were thinking of eating there that evening, they were quite quick to rush us out…so we paid the bill and left! After a nice dinner nearby, our time in Venice was very quickly at an end.

We had an early train so were going to miss breakfast, we had mentioned this to the guy on reception in the hope that they'd pack us a little croissant or 2…when we checked out, we were presented with a big paper bag full of goodies - water, juice, croissants, jam, brioche - you name it! They are certainly going to get a good review! After seeing the price of the water taxis…we opted to walk to the station - quite nice at that time of the morning!

Italy was mental, busy but lovely all the same. Pisa was definitely our highlight (with our wonderful hosts being a contributing factor). Eastern Europe next, looking forward to Bled for a bit of a break from cities!

*Interesting facts alert*!

- Pisa has a population of 150,000…in the summer 1/3rd of those leave and they are all students.

- Each day, 125,000 people commute into Venice to work. Venice only has about 53,000 permanent residents.