Venice

Yup, we're in Venice.
We encountered snow and black ice getting here and it was with some trepidation that the decision to cross the water and stay here was made. We actually only booked in for 2 nights, but now that the weather has improved we've extended another 2 days and are here until Wednesday.
Here's some stuff I didn't know about Venice; if you know already,cool, if not I hope it's interesting for you.
Venice is not part of the Italian mainland, it is in fact a group of 118 islands 2 1/2 kms offshore. The famed canals are actually the sea between the islands, the crafty Venetians have concreted them up that's all. as most people know the place is sinking, in fact many of the buildings now do not use the ground floor at all. There is however an enormous amount of work being done on the canals and walls to keep the water out. The Italian govt are spending 4Billion Euro to build huge underwater gates to limit the height of extreme tides.
we did the gondola thing today; it was nice.
Everything is expensive here and it's easy to be caught out in Italy and Rome and Venice in particular. Most restaurants have a cover charge of which you first learn of when you get the bill. The waiter kindly places a basket of bread on your table which is common every where we have been, but they charge you for it whether you eat it or not.
Beer is about 4 or 5 Euro, but so is Coke, spite etc. Wine is basically the same price!!!! Not hard to guess what our staple liquid consumption has been. Without even trying you spend 100 -150 euro each day on food and that's even if you get breakfast included in your hotel bill....
Yesterday, lunch in a basic cafe was pizza for rach, me pasta. We shared a bottle of red wine and bread and a bottle of water. That was 55 Euro.
Then dinner was steak for me, spaghetti for rach and more wine and water; 80Euro.
After dinner we went to a concert, Vivaldi's four seasons which was beautiful, fantastic. On our way home, 2 espresso, 2 glasses of desert wine and a shared desert, 56 Euro. SO BRING LOTS OF MONEY!!!!!!
Venice has an incredible amount of glass blowing shops and we bought some gifts and jewellery today. It is of course also famous for it's masks, masquerade style, and we are buying some of those too.
Anyway, after Venice we are thinking Milan for 2 days then perhaps Turin to catch up with the mad lot from Cuneo again.
We'll keep you posted!