Venice With Friends

After my husband and I left London, we joined up with eleven friends in Venice. Ten of us rented an apartment together instead of getting hotel rooms.

I highly recommend traveling with friends during Carnivale. We had a blast!One of the things I didn’t expect was to have my picture taken…a lot! I’m used to being on the other side of the camera. But since I was in costumer, along with my friends, it took us around two hours to cross St. Mark’s Square because everyone was stopping us to take our picture.We didn’t go to any of the balls….way too expensive (around $800 each, in most cases). But we did manage to get into the exclusive Florian…only those in costume were allowed in, in most cases. I felt like we were with the elite!

I preferred early mornings…I could watch the Venetians starting their day and see their normal routine. The evenings were too crowded for my taste…in some cases, I was walking shoulder to shoulder trying to get from point A to point B. Also, there were a lot of drunks in the evening and they didn’t care where they vomited….or shit (ewwww!).

I also recommend the gondola ride….if only once and at night. All of us crowded into two gondolas with our bottles of wine and really enjoyed the evening. It was so relaxing and romantic!