Venezia

Venice came with a lot of foreboding. I've been told so many times that it's a touristy place that doesn't live up to the hype: in summer it smells and in winter it floods. None of that was true for me: it was winter so naturally it didn't smell and lucky for us it didn't flood. I was really struck by the haunting beauty of the Grand Canal and the back alley canals. Getting lost in the labrinth of the Venetian streets wasstressful when we were looking for our hostel at 10:30pm (the locals are quite nice though), but during the daylight it can be pretty fun.

It was freezing with all that water

I like this dilapidated, ghostly town

One bad thing about Venice was the food. If there was a black hole of Italian food, it would be in Venice. Restaurants here are clearly targeted at tourists, serves bad tasting food which is overpriced. I also had this interesting conversation with a waiter:

Me: Do you have any fresh pastas?

Waiter: They are all fresh. They make it fresh at the factory, put it in a packet and I put it into the water.

Me: 囧