When I woke up, I opened the curtains and found our room overlooked a courtyard with a tower, that looked for all the world like a castle! Our room is small but cosy and the bathroom even smaller - I almost sit with my feet in the shower when I am on the toilet lol! For some reason, all the hotels have bidets which for us Aussies are just a waste of bathroom space. Breakfast was good and plentiful.
At 9am we could either explore San Marino on our own and walk with Patricia for a while. Alex and I wandered off and started climbing the hill. We found the square where the parliament building is and the tourism office where you can get your passport stamped for 5EU - most countries in the European Union don't stamp it and even when we had to show them going into and leaving Greece, there were no stamps. Most disappointing.
The views from San Marino are spectacular. It is high up on a mountain and We could see right across the countryside to the Aegean Sea. The original city is walled, with narrow streets and old stone buildings. San Marino, the republic, actually goes further down the mountain. There are far fewer cars than anywhere else, and not as many of the smelly, noisy scooters.
The city relies a lot on tourism but it is not as ín your face'as other places. There are none of the pedlars that riddle other places. There are lots of small shops and even gun shops. It was a shock to see handguns, rifles and even automatic rifles just in the windows, no bars. From all accounts, a lot of the shopping was very cheap.
After climbing up to the tower, we came back to do the passport stamping thing. But there was no one in the office so we hung around for half an hour waiting. It was freezing in the wind. Finally a woman turned up, glued a stamp into the passport then stamped over it with an official San Marino stamp. Then we went down the hill to sample hot chocolate from a place that Patricia raved over - 32 different flavours. I had chilli and oh my ! it was wonderful - thick, chocolately and with a nice chilli warmth.
Everyone wanted to spend more time in this lovely place - we could have sampled our way through all hot choc flavours! Alas, we had to leave to head off to Venice.
After a couple of hours'drive we arrived at our hotel, Poppi, which is about 30 mins from Venice. It is a nice hotel and our room is a good size. As it fronts onto a main road, there is a windout window, then a sliding window inside that which is double glazed, and totally blocks any noise. We were warned that in the night there are mosquitos and to close the windows.
We had an optional dinner tonight in Venice. We drove to the ferry station and then travelled by a ferry to the Venice islands. The water in the lagoon looked disgustingly dirty with a lot of weed. After disembarking, we had to walk to the restaurant but first Patricia took us to St Marks'Square. It was quite pretty and all litted up, as she would say :) We have a new vocabulary from Patricia. There were pedlars everywhere trying to sell us flying LED lights.
We walked through a number of narrow alleys to get to the restaurant. The waiters just flew around serving everyone. There was another tour group in the back of the room we were in and apparently the restaurant extended back into other rooms as well. I had the fish menu - prawn cocktail, pasta with seafood, fish and veges, and tira misu. All washed down with a light white wine.
Then it was back to the ferry and then the bus to the hotel. Tomorrow we explore Venice.
Hotel: Poppi
Wakeup: ; Breakfast: ; Depart:
At 9am we could either explore San Marino on our own and walk with Patricia for a while. Alex and I wandered off and started climbing the hill. We found the square where the parliament building is and the tourism office where you can get your passport stamped for 5EU - most countries in the European Union don't stamp it and even when we had to show them going into and leaving Greece, there were no stamps. Most disappointing.
The views from San Marino are spectacular. It is high up on a mountain and We could see right across the countryside to the Aegean Sea. The original city is walled, with narrow streets and old stone buildings. San Marino, the republic, actually goes further down the mountain. There are far fewer cars than anywhere else, and not as many of the smelly, noisy scooters.
The city relies a lot on tourism but it is not as ín your face'as other places. There are none of the pedlars that riddle other places. There are lots of small shops and even gun shops. It was a shock to see handguns, rifles and even automatic rifles just in the windows, no bars. From all accounts, a lot of the shopping was very cheap.
After climbing up to the tower, we came back to do the passport stamping thing. But there was no one in the office so we hung around for half an hour waiting. It was freezing in the wind. Finally a woman turned up, glued a stamp into the passport then stamped over it with an official San Marino stamp. Then we went down the hill to sample hot chocolate from a place that Patricia raved over - 32 different flavours. I had chilli and oh my ! it was wonderful - thick, chocolately and with a nice chilli warmth.
Everyone wanted to spend more time in this lovely place - we could have sampled our way through all hot choc flavours! Alas, we had to leave to head off to Venice.
After a couple of hours'drive we arrived at our hotel, Poppi, which is about 30 mins from Venice. It is a nice hotel and our room is a good size. As it fronts onto a main road, there is a windout window, then a sliding window inside that which is double glazed, and totally blocks any noise. We were warned that in the night there are mosquitos and to close the windows.
We had an optional dinner tonight in Venice. We drove to the ferry station and then travelled by a ferry to the Venice islands. The water in the lagoon looked disgustingly dirty with a lot of weed. After disembarking, we had to walk to the restaurant but first Patricia took us to St Marks'Square. It was quite pretty and all litted up, as she would say :) We have a new vocabulary from Patricia. There were pedlars everywhere trying to sell us flying LED lights.
We walked through a number of narrow alleys to get to the restaurant. The waiters just flew around serving everyone. There was another tour group in the back of the room we were in and apparently the restaurant extended back into other rooms as well. I had the fish menu - prawn cocktail, pasta with seafood, fish and veges, and tira misu. All washed down with a light white wine.
Then it was back to the ferry and then the bus to the hotel. Tomorrow we explore Venice.
Hotel: Poppi
Wakeup: ; Breakfast: ; Depart:
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