Thursday, September 06, 2007 | 11:47 PM

Part III - Venice

After more than a week spent in 2 bustling cities, we headed to Venice (Ryanair for 2nd time).

Wells, I would say that Venice is a rather boring place. And pardon me if you think otherwise, I find it slightly overrated.

Venice is very small (we were done exploring it within a day) and the only sightseeing place is at San Marco ie St Mark’s Square. And since that was the only sightseeing place, it was very congested - with both humans (such that we weren’t keen on entering the basilica at all) and pigeons (when I hate pigeons! And there are even peddlers selling pigeon feed at the square where the pigeons had such a great party).

This is just like 1/10 of the pigeon populated there

Zilian-ing was not deterred though - us outside the basilica

Nevertheless, we could still shop in Venice. Yes, shopping even in Venice! And as we were super duper bored, we sought comfort in the cheapest gelato I could find in Europe (1euro for a single scoop) and idling time away at the playground and along the small canals.

The canal that we chilled out at

Idling time away...

But the Grand Canal is certainly worth a visit. And as Jieyi was sea-sick, Jeanne and I went on the night cruise of the Grand Canal ourselves. And I reckon that Jeanne disagrees with my adjective of Venice being overrated after the night cruise. Well, I would definitely encourage a night cruise as the views are very different from those that you can see in the day.

The overpopulated waterboat

Waterboat station

Taken on the waterboat

Nice view of the grand canal

Night views of Venice taken on the waterboat (Pardon my camera which really suck at taking night scenes)

Gondolas were aplenty along the canal too, but we did not try them out due to negative reviews of it being expensive and not worth it. And therefore, beside waterboats, we had a good time exploring Venice by foot too (partly due to Jieyi’s sea-sickness which she discovered only there and then).

Do you spot 4 gondola hand-in-hand?

Close up view of a gondola and the driver

Me along one of the canals

3 of us at dusk (Venice during sunset is really pretty!)

Though we stayed in Venice for only 3 nights, there were many encounters which I would never forget – from the super friendly ABC auntie who randomly offered to take a photo of us when she spotted us twice – to the super fierce Italian mama who glared at me for 5minutes at the playground for sending a pigeon right into her face.
And from our random word piecing game outside the pizza shop – to the gondola driver who questioned mark us at the small canal – and to our entertainment derived from the kids (Xabi boy) and the doggie (Penny!) and many many more.

Here's Xabi on pram and company

So excess time was rather well spent, much credit to the company. =)