FRIDAY 28/5/99 ARRIVE VENICE

The rest of the flight was OK and uneventful. There were no delays in processing at Rome airport, they did not even bother to stamp my passport. Just a glance at it and waved on through. We were delayed a bit boarding the domestic flight to Venice. It was further delayed on the ground, but then provided a smooth flight to Venice. The airport at Venice is quite small, down steps of the plane, and bus to terminal.

I was met at the airport by someone from the company who drove me to the offices and factory for a quick look around, then to the hotel. The hotel is quite nice. Traditional Italian looking on the outside and the room is quite modern. The town of Mogliano Veneto is quite small, and after a shower and rest I had walk around the town. After that I couldn't stay awake any more with the jet lag, and went to bed.

SATURDAY 29/5/99 VISIT TO VENICE

I got up reasonable early and had a continental breakfast (of course) in the courtyard out the back of the hotel which was most pleasant in the morning. Bread rolls, cornflakes, danish and cappuccino made for a filling brekky.

The train station is only 100 metres from the hotel at the end of the street. Getting the train to Venezia (Venice) is easy as it is an end of line station and the departure board shows the name. You also can't miss the stop! Venezia is only 15 minutes and two stops away. It was 5,000 lire (less than A$5) for the return ticket.

Venice is a real tourist area, and quite different from the sleepy town I am staying in. It was quite humid and warm as I tramped around the canals and alleyways. I stopped for a lemon squash in Piazza St Marco (St Marks Square). It was very enjoyable with a 5 piece orchestra playing away in the background, and I stayed there relaxing for a while. The lemon squash was the most expensive I had ever had at 17,000 lire which is A$15 ! That did include the charge for the music though, and I got to use their toilet for free - most public ones in Venice seem to be 500 lire a go!

There were lots of people from many varied countries walking around. Many of the main tourist tracks were lined with shops selling crappy souvenirs and so on. However away from the main tracks was very different with quiet little shops ranging from hand made glassware and artworks to normal hardware and electrical stores.

I had a sandwich from a small café in an alleyway for morning tea, which was quite nice and not too expensive. Things are not so bad away from the main tourist tracks. Then for lunch I had a 'Mc Royal with cheese' at McDonalds. Pretty poor I know when in the land of such great cuisine, but I wanted to say I had had one - think back to the movie Pulp Fiction.... Most of the menu items were the same as here, but check out the prices - 7900 for a medium meal deal (A$7)! There was also a queue of people several metres long for the free toilets.

Getting the train back to Mogliano Veneto was much more difficult than getting the train to Venice this morning. Mogliano Veneto is only a small stop and is not mentioned anywhere on the boards. The guy at the hotel warned me that if I got on the wrong train I could end up in Germany! We don't have the problem of ending up in the wrong country in Australia. However I found an automatic ticket machine that spoke English as one of its 6 languages.

After a shower and a rest back at the hotel, it was down to the bar a couple of doors down for dinner. I wrote a couple of postcards while sitting outside and downing a 'coca barcadi' (barcardi and coke). Just up from me a large group of older Italian men were having a lively discussion over a number of wines and munchies. I had no idea what they were talking about however. Dinner was OK, although they don't like to cook their steak medium asI prefer it, but rather rare.

After dinner I worked on the laptop back at the hotel room, working out how to upload a web page by the remote connection I have, then typing up the story, converting it to HTML and loading up the site. Then I emailed most of the people I have in contacts. I Got to bed a few hours the wrong side of midnight, but pleased with what I had managed to achieve.

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