Why Do I Travel?

 

Moving Day, 3 floors...no elevator

 

I travel because I love to learn, about different cultures, languages, ways of life and of course, let's not forget food and wine!  Michel and I just returned from a fabulous trip to Venice and the Tuscany area and I'd love to share with you what we learned.  Venice, of course, is an island joined by a causeway to the mainland. We rented an apartment in Santa Croce which allowed us to get a great feel for the neighbourhood, plus you can really save on food costs by having some of your meals in the apartment. You don't get that feeling of being part of the area, when you stay in a hotel. There are no vehicles allowed past the parking garage, and sitting back here in Canada, you hear that, but you really don't get the implications of it.  Being part of the neighbourhood, I learned that you walk...everywhere....., that if it's really far you can take a boat, but that only gets you down the canal in the middle or around the outside....and then you walk. It's well signposted with 3 main signs, Rialto, Piazza San Marco, Santa Lucia (train station), so you know if you are more or less going in the right direction. They have daily garbage pickup, just hang the bag outside your door and the next day they collect the garbage from every house in Venice and wheel their containers over to....yup...the boat.  If you are constructing something, everything has to come in by boat, if you are having stock for your store delivered....boat, if you are moving out of your apartment....boat, we even saw a DHL Courier...boat.  The deli wrapped our loose olives in waxed paper, if everything has to be delivered by boat then plastic containers become a problem.  You can buy wine from the wine store by the litre out of big wicker wrapped glass demijohns.  They use empty waterbottles from the restaurants to hold the wine, recycling at it's most useful.  On the plus side, the transportation system is very efficient, with an all day pass you can hop off and hop on, or go out to the outlying islands.  

 

It was truly an amazing place to visit, one that we will certainly return to.  Ciao.

              ..shirley