Dear Carnivalees,

The day before us was of unstructured ambling, taking the advice of Lonely Planet to lose yourself in it's alleyways. We had thought to visit The Basillica of San Marco and/or the Bell Tower but given the length of the queues we decided that time was too short and our love affair with all things religious had been more than adequately sated in Florence and we could happily be on a starvation diet till we got to Rome.

We popped around the corner to the Bridge of Sighs, so named because it was allegedly the last time prisoners would view Venice asthey crossed this small bridge before being marched to their jail cells below ground. Turns out that all that is hooey, but the tourist go there anyway. Venetians, keen on a buck to this very day, have put up these enormous billboard hoardings on both sides of the buildings looking towards the Bridge advertising cheesy sunglasses and that's what people are taking photographs of - absolute vandalism. So we moved. Off from there pronto and headed into the maze of alleyways.

We stopped at every mask shop- made for the Carnavale every second year. A traditional mask is paper mâché and are hand made and painted. I wanted one to take home to remind of this wonderful place. I am pretty sure that Siobhan was over this particular reconnaissance mission by shop eight or nine, but I had just started to gain momentum.

We found ourselves at the Rialto Bridge which crosses the Grand Canal so we tried to get a photo - a difficult achievement when the bridge is heaving with tourists. So we had lunch waterside and watched as the traffic of various size and capacity made it's way up and down the grand canal. Of particular fun to those at lunch, are those tourists in a Gondola enjoying a peaceful and calm journey down the canal, when a high speed ambulance comes racing down the middle of the canal spraying water and creating turbulence for these little craft. The tourists get soaked and the Gondoliers laugh their pretty ribboned hats off!!!

In the afternoon we found a wonderful shop with beautiful lithographs that we just "had to have" and we found one of the most subversive things ever. There is no other way to describe this than it was a calendar of Holy Hotties! Photographs of young good looking priests (?) presented in a way similar to Fire Fighters or footballers would be except, that the clothes (and collars) are on. We brought one because there was something strangely disturbing about this calendar and I really don't think George Pell would approve (reason enough for me to buy it) and I don't think it has the Vatican seal of approval either. We mulled it over and wanted to get more on our last day but couldn't find any - we are hoping that some may turn up in Rome!!!!!!

We wandered all afternoon and headed home for a shower and change before heading to the famous Harry's Bar for an even more famous Bellini. This famous bar was opened around 1930 and here Guiseppe Ciprianni, created the Bellini and mixture of Proscecco and White Peach Nectar(glasses, nectar and Prosecco to be very very cold) mixed between two stainless steel milkshake containers, then poured into the glass. Chad, you were sooooooooo right, it was the most amazing drink ever! Along with Pannacotta, Gooch Street Hotel will be serving Bellinis as the apparertivo de giourno this summer!

Our day ended at a lovely Oristerio near our hotel where we enjoyed a salad of grapes, pecorino, walnuts, goats cheese, rocket and balsamic vinegar followed by a main of French cut lamb cutlets served with a mixed berry jus and a red wine to die for!

Carnivale Carnivores



Kelly & Siobhan xxx