ITALY PART FOUR - Venice

Venice is one of my absolute dream places to go so I just couldn't contain my excitement on the bus from Lake Garda to Venice which was about a 2 hour journey, I slept the whole way there as it was so early in the morning. It was also the hottest day since we'd been in Italy.

Once we arrived in Venice we then had to get a water taxi to get to the actually city. As the water taxi was getting closer to the city I got so excited seeing all the old buildings, the taxi was quite quick and we finally arrived. It felt so surreal to be in Venice, it is absolutely gorgeous, the buildings are so amazing and it helped that the weather was so nice too.

We got something to eat, some places can be quiet expensive so make sure to look at the menu's before you go in, after we ate we then began exploring, Venice is quite old fashioned, it has a 1950's feel to it as it has a lot of jazz/blues bars. I loved it, I felt like I was on a movie set, it was too surreal it didn't feel like a real place.

Every street is filled with music, people playing the violin, people singing opera, people playing guitar, a band were playing their music inside a clothes shop. There were lots of artists painting in the streets too, selling their art and the buildings looked like works of art, there was so much detail in the buildings. I loved how Venice is filled with music and art around every corner.

You can easily get lost in Venice, there are so many alley ways and turns and even though you try to remember the bridges you went across, they all near enough look the same. We got lost for quite a while trying to make our way back to St Marks Square.

We then decided to take a ride on a gondola to explore more of the city. The drivers were so lovely and have a great sense of humour, our driver even entertained us with some lovely singing! You see a lot more of Venice on a gondola, we noticed a lot of hotels entrances were on the canals so people had to get water taxis or gondolas to get to there hotels. I definitely recommend it even though it's a little pricey its worth it as you see a lot more and you will have the experience of going on one, I will always remember it.

People always complain about the smell in Venice, but I honestly didn't find it that bad, some parts smelled a little like sewage but it wasn't anything you couldn't handle, you hardly noticed it really.

Venice really comes alive at night, everywhere has something going on. Every bar has entertainment and a great atmosphere I really didn't want to leave but our taxi back was leaving at 11pm so we couldn't fully enjoy Venice's night life, maybe next time.

ITALY PART THREE - Verona

So one of the places I was really excited to see in Italy was Verona. Have you seen the film Letters to Juliet? Well it's set in Verona and it's one of my favourites so this was another reason i was looking forward to going, especially to see Juliet's balcony.

We got the bus to Verona from Lake Garda which was about an hour away. When we arrived we didn't know where to get off or where the city centre was so we got off anywhere. We ended up getting lost so had to buy a map from a little shop which helped us find where we needed to go.

We made it to Juliet's balcony which was packed with people, it was so busy! There were queues to get a picture taken on Juliet's balcony and queues to get a picture taken with the Juliet statue. It was such a pretty place though, it felt so romantic with the wall of love letters and love locks. Me and Michael bought a lock, wrote our names and the date and locked it onto the wall.

We then made our way to the Colosseum which was so amazing, I was so fascinated with how old it is and how big! I kept imagining how it was used by the romans so many years ago.

Read my next Italy blog: Italy Part Four - Venice 

Read Part One and Part Two of my trip. 

ITALY PART TWO - Malcesine

After spending some time in Lake Garda, we decided to take a bus to Malcesine which was only about half an hour away. A few people had told me about this place and said how beautiful it is so we decided to go.

As soon as I got there I was astounded at how beautiful it was. It was a small town with an amazing backdrop, it was like being in a painting with the mountains. We walked around and explored all the lovely little shops and searched for somewhere to have breakfast as we hadn't had time to have any that morning. We found a cute café that sold hot sandwiches and sat inside, I noticed that even though I tried to speak the best Italian I could the people where so friendly and they spoke English really well.

After having breakfast we decided we were going to take the cable cars up to the top of the mountains to get a good view, we saw pictures on the leaflets of the views from the top and it looked beautiful. When we got to the place where you get your tickets we saw the queue for the tickets and cable cars and it looked so long, it must have been at least an hour wait, Michael also wasn't feeling well either, so we decided not to do it.

Instead we bought tickets to visit Castello Scalligero which was a beautiful castle beside the lake. Michael still wasn't feeling well but he still braved the long stairs all the way to the top. The views were breath taking.. 

The castle reminded me a little of Game of Thrones, there was also a wedding going on and it looked gorgeous, it definitely gave me ideas of where I would like to get married one day.

Read my next Italy blog here: Italy Part Three - Verona 

Read Part One of my trip here

ITALY PART 1 - Lake Garda

I have always wanted to go to Italy, not only because I am such a big pizza lover but it also looked like such a beautiful country full of culture, amazing food and gorgeous weather. So in May last year we decided to take a trip to the northern part of Italy, Lake Garda.

We flew from Newcastle to Lake Garda and as soon as we arrived I just felt the heat straight away which I didn't expect as before we came people who have been before said it rains a lot in Lake Garda and can be cold this time of year, but it was the opposite when we were there.

We arrived at our hotel, checked in, dropped off our bags and headed back out. I'm not one of those people who likes to lounge around the hotel when I arrive, I have to be out exploring straight away. We discovered some lovely restaurants, cafes and really cool bars. Lake Garda is so relaxing and it was lovely to walk along the lake as it was so calm and so pretty. I love how Lake Garda's so green and full of amazing flowers.

Even though Lake Garda was fairly small you could still walk around plenty of times and discover another alley way with hidden shops and restaurants. I loved that wherever you go in Italy you can smell pizza down every street as they have pizza places everywhere. You can never spend ages searching for somewhere to eat.

I also loved that they have lots of little markets going on in Lake Garda selling handmade items, antiques, jewellery and paintings. I wish I could have bought the paintings, one was of the painting The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, one of my favourites but I doubt it would have fit in my suitcase!

The food and cocktails are amazing in Italy, I don't think I have ever ate so much pasta, pizza, bread or tiramisu! We also bought a few things from the supermarket to take home like Italian cakes, biscuits and handmade pasta. I also can't forget to mention Italy's famous Gelato, BEST ICE CREAM EVER. Every time I passed a Gelato shop I just had to get some, you can get 1 to 3 scoops in a tub or cone and they have so many flavours, I definitely recommend the pistachio flavour it was soo good.

The wine is just amazing and so cheap as it's made locally, we bought a few bottles to drink on the balcony of our hotel room on the nights as they were so cheap, the cocktails were so nice too, they have a cocktail which is a favourite among the Italians called an Aperol Spritz which has prosecco, Aperol and soda served in a large wine glass.

Read my next Italy blog here: Italy Part Two - Malcesine