Venezia

In hindsight Venice is surprisingly close in proximity to Brunico. I wish I had known this in the dead of freezing winter these last few months when 3 hours could have taken us to sunshine, beaches, and positive degrees Centigrade. I also had no idea that Venice was an Island... or... in truth... many islands separated by canals... connected by bridges and 6 Euro ferry rides... and only one bridge to the main land put up 500 years after its founding...
I was told that you could do Venice in a day... but after climbing the clock tower to see all the islands that we missed... 3/4s of the city that we missed... and the 300 completely identical tourist trap shops (which Danelle had to go into each one) that we missed... I think Venice deserves more... In all honesty I think that WHILE Venice could be downed like a 2 Euro Jager shot and quickly move to the ‘also saw’ part of the vacation... it SHOULD be nursed like that one last drink you really don’t want but have to fake to drink (for me it’s my third as I’ve come to thoroughly enjoy elevated sobriety) because someone else bought it for you and to be nice you hold in your hand well into after all the ice cubes are melted... and slowly you sip at it... this is how you should treat Venice... like savouring a severely nursed watered-down cola...
Also in a weird way Venice is surprisingly similar to Brugges... canals... towers... surrounded by water... it was a similar distance away from Brunico than Brugges was from Tilburg... and it’s marketed to romantic couples... but... Venice is bigger... warmer... like a thousand years older... and about 90 more churches and castles... From the look of the shops I would have to say that 95% of the revenue in this town comes from tourism (with 5% from fishing)... and of that 95%... 90% of that comes from overpriced drinks they scam you with after they connive you in the door by offering underpriced food...
'yes, please, would you like an 11 Euro, 4 course dinner... yes I’ll sit... want some exra salted saltine crackers?... sure!... thirsty?... yes... oh! Well then have a 6 Euro no-refill coca-cola... no?... just water?... ok, 8 Euros...'
Of the many things that Venice has to offer... the 101 churches...the castle turned louvre-esque museum... the clock tower... the extremely overpriced gondola rides... by far the coolest thing is the glass making business... and in particular... their fishbowl glass with a tiny red fish inside spouting bubbles... every tourist place seems to have something that each shop has and every tourist wants... in Banff it is little white polar bears... in Paris it’s miniature Eiffel Towers... in Amsterdam it’s some form of STD I would think... and in Venice this fishbowl was definitely it... which has now become our wine topper... Other cool things were the home of Marco Polo and Casanova... both respectively going places where no other man had gone before... respectively...