VENICE

Ah! Venice. The final stop on my Grand tour and what a place to finish. Many of the worlds greatest writers and poets from Byron to Hemingway have tried to put Venice into words but it is an impossible task, so I'm not even going to attempt it! It has to be seen to be believed. There is really no place like it on earth. Totally unique! Every street is a perfect postcard; every canal a perfect painting. You can spend hours walking the small alleys ways that become the maze that the city is and the saying is true: You never find your way back to the same place the same way.
Bec's and Deb's joined us in Venice and now with Ruth we became five, though I should say five ladies of leisure. All we did was wander all day, shop, eat and drink. We did find time to go on a gondola which has to be done in Venice, though I did nearly throw up again with back motion sickness, on that thing. Thank God I didn't as I don't think Venice would seem so scenic if you were stood on a bridge and see some northern girl chucking over the side of a gondola as it floats by you!
It being our last night out, we all got our glad rags on and went out for dinner on Saturday. This involved us drinking and eating to much; getting molested by the old Italian guy at the table next to us, who told me I had a nice pair of eyes, but was looking at my breast (They have grown due to all the pasta. Yes!); going to a bar and meeting some Italian guys who wanted to take us to a party; us telling them we would be back in 5 minutes after we walked Ruth home; us getting very lost and taking 45 minutes Oops!; us thinking sod it and going to another bar; us meeting some other Italian guys, one hot (None English speaking!), one not hot (English speaking! Why does that always happen!); us being asked out the next day to go out on a boat with them; us thinking about it; us making a sharp exit and us ignoring their phone calls the next day! Oh! and us with a big hangover as well. So a good night out!
We spent our last day sat on the beach in the Venice Lido catching our last rays (the tan has faded big time since Tropea!) Then we went to the famous Harry's bar for a Bellini, at the place of its invention! We did feel slightly out of place as the bar was filled with the rich of the rich who don't even look a the prices and then there is us going "Oh my God! Look how much it costs, maybe we should peg it now!" We decided to stay and break our bank balances and were like naughty school children being very loud and silly in the corner of the room much to the dismayed looks from the social elite, as if to say "Who let the Riff Raff in!" We didn't care though!
So my Grand tour has finished. Have I found the answers to life while I have been here? No! Have I hell, because there are no answers. What I have done is eaten and drank a lot, laughed, had a great time with great friends, seen the most amazing things and fallen in love with a country. Italy: Ti amo. xxx