Thursday 9^th October, 2014…….Venice Island and a hot day again……walked and walked….Venice Island is massive and oh the people….got talking to a couple of Kiwis and they said they had been in Venice before too and like us they can’t get over the crowds in October….we crossed the Grand Canal many times walking to the corners of Venice Island…..and the Grand Canal is such a busy water way as water buses, gondolas, water taxis and working boats all jockey for their piece of water on the Grand Canal……everything is transported by boat,  literally everything….we saw a boat load of beautiful chairs covered with red velvet upholstery being transported with no covers and the salt water was certainly being splashed onto the outside chairs but I guess this is the way it is in Venice…..however we were pleased to see how clean the water of the Grand Canal is……something that did amaze us was the number of mosquitos……we saw more mosquitos in Venice than we did in the whole of Africa….found another little restaurant in another street and watched the world go by then strolled the streets of Venice Island a bit more before retiring…….M & F

Friday 10^th October, 2014…….Venice Island and time to leave……but not before paying 9 Euro a night city tax……36 Euros we had to pay for our 4 nights…you pay for your bed and now they sting you for this bed tax as you depart but we’re told this is the way it is so we will have a lot more bed tax to pay in Europe yet….

 And so we caught a water bus to the main Venice train station and again oh the bun fight to get on the water bus and then to get off…you literally have to fight your way through the crowd……Venice station and people everywhere trying to work out how to get wherever…and the stations are coming so much like airline terminals…..the big display boards and you have to work it out for yourself….no such thing as a conductor these days……Prague train station in particular was like an airline terminal…..we had to wait for our train to Florence but there is always something happening where there are people….a piano has been donated to Venice station and a Japanese boy was playing it and he certainly knew how to play the piano….he left to catch his train and then another Japanese boy played and when he left a Japanese girl played…….we were amazed how well these Japanese kids played the piano and we certainly enjoyed the entertainment as did many others……thinking about music reminds of going to breki in our hotel in Prague one morning and they were playing 60’s music in English….Love Letters in the Sand, Oh Diana etc…..very enjoyable but made me feel my age!! And so to Florence where we changed trains to go to La Spezia……all very civilised to here and then we had to get a train from La Spetzia to Bonassola….what chaos, but this is the trains in Italy….got talking to an Oz couple on the train who had lost everything in Rome poor devils so it sounds like Rome will be the place to be most vigilant as it was last time…. finally at 1830 we reached our hotel in Bonassola where we have stayed before…so lovely to be back by the beach and have the sound of the sea…..we went out and purchased our obligatory bottle of wine and sat on our deck, looking out to sea and enjoying a glass of our Valpolicella……..dinner at 1930…this is a family run hotel where they serve dinner, bed and breki……all very relaxing to be back in Bonassola and away from the crowds and in the sea air….

Reflecting on the trains, we have been amazed the times we have stopped on the tracks, obviously to get onto a track after another train has passed through……it seems that the number of trains have increased but the number of train tracks hasn’t…..reminds me of sitting in a plane on a tarmac somewhere in my travels when the pilot announced “Sorry for the delay but we are just waiting for a slot in the air flow”….truly his words……and on this trip Michael and I have often commented on the amount of vapour trails in the sky too……the world is a busy place be it on land, air or water..…..M & F

Saturday 11^th October, 2014……Bonassola….A nice morning so had breki up on the terrace this morning, looking out to sea and then we went walking rediscovering this little village we enjoyed in 2005 when we came on a tramping trip here……come afternoon and we got rain, rain and more rain so we had a beer in a beach front café and watched the lightning and listened to the thunder…..when it eased we went to the information centre and learned that the week train tickets we had last time only run from Monday to Sunday…how dumb is that, so we have opted to take a trip to Portofino tomorrow and we purchased the Monday to Sunday train ticket which we will use for the 5 villages of the Cinque Terre on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ….still cheaper than buying individual day tickets……the weather is not looking great but to date we have been so lucky…the humidity here has been dreadful however the rain has cleared the air…..M & F

NZ Shop in Venice.....inside they had picture of the Southern Alps with the caption reading Auckland...and some of the spelling was wrong in the way they spelt Auckland e.g. Auceland and NZ was spelt New Zealanda......all very ineresetng and the shop assistant was so Italian and didn't know 'diddly' squat about NZ and what's more wasn't interested!!!!!

Doges Palace...Venice.....

Gondola congestion!!!!

The Grand Canal with water bus, water taxi, gondola etc......sadly doesn't really reflect the business of the Grand Canal....

Yours truly loaded up....this is definitely my last trip back packing thus the pic!!!!!

Water Bus Station...Venice Island.....

Oh how they load those water buses!!!

Venice Railway Station......

As above......

Breki on the terrace in Bonassola......

As above....

Bonassola....we walked the road above the town......

Cemetery Italian style in Bonassola.....

Bonassola....