Back to Italy Again (Venice)

For the final trip away I took during my time as an English Language Assistant, I went back to Italy again, this time to Venice. Even though it was so easy to get to (there is a direct train from Villach), I had put off going there for a while as I was worried it would be really expensive. However, I found out it that if you stay on the mainland, near Venezia Mestre train station, it's actually quite affordable. Not the nicest area, but fine as long as you don't go out at night!

Venice, like Florence, was a place I'd wanted to see for a long time. And it really was as beautiful as people say it is. The downside was that it was extremely busy, especially around the most touristic places. It was only mid December when I went, so I definitely would not want to go there in the summer or the carnival season!

Even with Google Maps, I got very lost a couple of times, but I eventually managed to see all the main sites and take some pictures. Here they are:

The views you see when you first come out of Venezia Santa Lucia train station. Amazing!

I Frari

Ponte Rialto

Hard to see here, but it's a cool sculpture of a pair of hands on a building.

Basilica di San Marco

Piazza San Marco

Palazzo Ducale

Ponte dei Sospiri

A couple of islands you can see across the canal from outside Palazzo Ducale. Unfortunately I didn't have time to visit them in December, but maybe I will go back to Venice in the future and look round them then.


It is funny how I have ended up spending so much time in Italy during the German-speaking part of my Year Abroad. I had only been there once before, having spent a few hours in San Remo when I was fifteen and on holiday in the south of France. So it was great to explore the country more and see a couple of famous cities. There are lots of other places there that I want to go to in the future, Rome most of all.

I also started learning the Italian language in October before going to Udine, and I am finding it really interesting. Maybe it wasn't a great idea to start learning a new language when I'm already studying three, but I feel I have to finish the Duolingo Italian course now that I've started it!

I went home for Christmas a couple of weeks after my Venice trip and then came back to Austria in the new year for the last five weeks of my assistantship. I was too busy to take any trips away during that time, but I did do quite a lot of sightseeing around Kärnten. So that's what my next post will be about!