Day 22 - Venice

Wednesday, June 3rd - We departed the ferry around noon and got back onto the coach. We drove about an hour and our first stop was Verona. This was a whirlwind stop, we got off the bus near the Roman Arena although we didn't have time to stop and look around. We just breezed by it and continued on to Romeo and Juliet's balcony. Honestly I wasn't overly excited about seeing the balcony of a fictional character. We took a quick look and we were given about 45 minutes to grab some lunch. It was Republic Day in Italy which is a national holiday so Sian told us that most stores wouldn't be open but they were and they had some great stuff. I was starving so I didn't have time for lunch and shopping so I opted for lunch. Definitely wish we had more time to spend in Verona.

We had some time to kill before heading to out hotel so Sian organized a bonus trip to Lake Garda and the village of Sirmone - why we couldn't spend more time in Verona I'm unsure. The main attraction of Sirmone was Scaliger Castle which is from the 13th century - it was quite beautiful. Sirmone also had a great market place - Sukhey and I wandered around for a while and stumbled upon a great vintage store. This place had vintage Chanel, Louis Vouitton and other great finds. Some items dated back to to the 1940's - it took all my restraint not to buy anything! I did end up buying a cute dress sundress for only $15 Euros at a different store - not vintage but I was quite happy with my purchase!

It was finally time to head to our hotel which was about an hour's drive from Sirmone. Once we finally got there I was quite disappointed; the hotel was quite a distance away from the city. Once Sandra and I saw our room we were even more disappointed, our toilet was in our shower! This was supposed to be the "superior" contiki tour! Next up was dinner which turned out to be the worst meal of the entire trip - a tiny portion of cold lasagna that I can only compare to dog food. It was absolutely horrible, a lot of people ended up ordering pizza from the bar to try and make up for it.

Sukhey, Jas and I were now quite grumpy with how the day had turned out, we were unimpressed about not having more time to spend in Verona and even less impressed by the hotel. We decided to grab a bottle of wine from the bar and play some cards to try and salvage the day. I taught Sukhey and Rochelle Hearts and Ali joined in for a bit. On to the second bottle of wine and we tried to get a game of poker going. Dustin, Ali and I knew how to play but we had to teach Sukhey and Rochelle. Teaching drunk people how to play poker is impossible and quite frustrating so we gave up pretty fast. The hotel bar was closing up but we convinced the bartender to sell us another bottle of wine and took to the lobby. By now Sukhey, Jas and I were quite pissed. A group of about 8 of us sat around for awhile and chatted and apparently we were a lot louder than we thought. So loud that Matt F came downstairs just to see what was going on. After briefly seeing what the Amigo's were up to and Ben needing to walk me to my room it was time to head to bed. Sandra and I only had one key and she had it, so I ended up knocking on my door and apparently causing a lot of ruckus before finally being let in. All in all a fun night and definitely saved the first night in Venice!

Roman Arena

Juliet's Balcony

Scaliger Castle





Our lovely shower/toilet in Venice