Last time we visited Venice we camped in a little campground on the mainland about fifteen minutes by bus from Venice itself, this time although it would have been nice to stay on the island of Venice, we had a car and with no roads and a very expensive car parking building, we chose to stay at Hotel Bologna, in Mestre, which is just one stop on the train stop from Venice. The railway station and bust stops were directly opposite the hotel, so in just 10 minutes we were in Venice and ready to explore.

We spent our first afternoon and evening meandering around the narrow streets and alleyways of the Island, although many of them all look the same we did recognise several places and of course the grandeur of the Rialto Bridge and Saint Marks square (San Marco) and pretty unforgettable. During your meanderings, if you happen to stumble across the Aqua Alta bookshop, have a look inside, it's quite fascinating and very famous. If you have any tours booked make sure you leave plenty of time to get to them, although you are on an island it can be easy to get 'temporarily lost'.

On our second day we did two tours. In the morning we visited the Doge's Palace, it was interesting to learn how the city was governed and how records were kept. Information was transcribed using three different people who only received part of the information and therefore no single person knew the 'full story' of any secrets they were documenting. Law and order was up held by a system encouraging citizens to anonymously 'dob' in others for doing wrong by the law. We also visited the secret prison areas, learned about the 'Bridge of Sighs' and the significance of its name and were told the story of Casanova, who was imprisoned in the Doge's Palace and of his successful escape. The afternoon was spent on 'the best of Venice' small group tour (there was just eight of us), which commenced with an hour cruising around the waterways and canals of Venice, on a water taxi, which was a nice relaxing way to see the city. After a guided tour around the San Marco Basillica, we concluded our afternoon with a walking tour of the inner city of Venice.

Having purchased a bus pass, for both land and water busses (€20 for one day or €30 for two and definitely value for money) we decided on our last day in Venice to take a trip out to Murano, famous for its glass and Burano, famous for its lace. We had visited Murano on our previous travels, but not Burano, thanks Sarah and Farhaad for the recommendation, it was another one of those 'wow' moments. Burano as well as being famous for its lace has tiny streets lined with quant houses painted all the bright colours of the rainbow set amongst trees and little canals. There are not as many tourists in Burano and as you wander around you will discover more alleyways again lined with brightly coloured buildings.

No trip to Venice is complete without a gondola ride. The set price of €80 for a 30 minute trip before 6pm or €100 after 7pm may seem a little steep, but the wooden boats are still built using traditional methods and cost €60,000 each to purchase (and no it wasn't a gondolier that told us that). Pick a time if you can that's not too busy and have a chat to the gondolier before you hop in. We got a young guy who was very friendly and informative, he explained buildings and landmarks as we passed them and despite him telling us he had a bad voice, he sang to us, a wonderful end to another great visit to Venice.