Ciao Bella

I've been a blog slacker lately, leaving all the mud-slinging dirty work to The T. Part of the reason is because I was out of the country, visiting what is (in my humble opinion) the most beautiful city in the world - Venice, Italy.

It was my second time visiting Venice and here are some facts I'd like to share and rumors about the city that I'd like to dispel, for all who might be curious:

1. It does not stink.

   That is the usually first thing people say to me when I mention having been to Venice. "It smells really bad - like a sewer, right?" This is one of the ones I find really weird, because while I can understand how people might think that with the canals and all, I don't get who it is that's running around saying "omg Venice smells like sewer y'all!" I was there in July of last year - it was over 90 like every day and it smelled... better than this damn city, I can tell you that much. In November, at 7am... Venice smells like pastries. In some areas you might pick up that faint fishy smell that you get near water anywhere you go, but sewer? No, not at all.

2. You don't have to travel all over the city via gondola.

   Dudes, gondolas cost like 80 euro per person, per ride. They're like the Venetian equivalent of a horse cab right through Central Park... though probably 8 million times better - I haven't been on a gondola (I'd prefer to spend my 80 euro on food and jewelry). The vaporetto is kind of like the Venetian version of mass transit. It also kind of runs on the honor system - nobody checks tickets unless you're coming from the airport or something. If you got on every day without paying, I doubt they'd ever notice... and that somehow makes it seem impolite to do so.

3. No, there are no cars.

   Your travel options are limited to by water or by foot. All in all, though, it's a pretty walkable city. And walking through it is half the fun of being there, so if you ever go, then really go. Get lost. That's what you're supposed to do in Venice. You can't really appreciate it if you don't.

4. You need rain boots.

   The city floods - it's not a seasonal thing, it's a this city is floating in the middle of a lagoon thing. It happened only once when I was there in July, but we saw several inches of water nearly every day during my November trip. On the day in the photograph, it was at least mid-calf by the time we left the square. They put up elevated planks rather quickly, but some areas are still inaccessible to those who think their sneakers are going to cut it.

I took nearly 1,500 pictures in six days on this trip, but managed to cut it down to several hundred when I uploaded them. Anyone who's interested can view them here. Otherwise, please feel free to continue looking at the post about Jennifer Aniston naked, who, like Venice, is very beautiful.