It might have been the jet lag or (most probably) the coughing from my soaking in the rain the day before but I had a really fitful night trying to sleep. After tossing and turning for what seemed like ages, I finally gave up trying to go back to sleep around 5 or 6-ish. The sky was still dark at the time so I just kinda laid on the bed until I heard my friends stir. They were probably woken up by my coughing and whatnot (Sorry C & V!). We kinda lazed around and it wasn’t until 9-ish that we made ourselves presentable to head out.
Good morning Venice! (View from our hotel room). Taken at around 9am Venice Time (according to timestamp). Sun’s just beginning to rise.
We headed down for breakfast at the hotel (more on that in a separate post: here).
After breakfast, C and I decided to take a walk around the neighbourhood as we didn’t need to be at the cruise ship to check in until around 3pm (at the latest).
V wasn’t really interested so she stayed in the hotel room.
After grabbing our cameras and other important stuff – like my wallet! – we headed off!
We were the only two people walking around the neighbourhood and it was actually pretty nice and quiet, it felt like we had the whole neighbourhood to ourselves. Haha.
The hotel we stayed at – Antony Palace Hotel.
The road we had taken the previous day to Venice.
Look! One of those small Italian cars… Hehe.
Kinda random, but… A bus stop.
An interesting-looking bridge that we crossed to get to the other side.
A movie theater – UCI Cinemas.
Some flowers by the road side.
Another bunch of flowers.
While walking around, we came across a shopping mall called Valecenter and since it was open (it was the only place that was open at the time), we decided to take a look inside. 🙂
Centro Commerciale Valecenter – located in Marcon (Venice), Italy.
A fitness center located opposite (one of the) entrance to Valecenter. It’s what made the interesting reflection in the mirrored glass in the previous photo.
The first sight that greeted us when we entered: a giant Christmas tree and Christmas decorations!
We were in Venice in November, so it was nearly Christmastime and thus lovely Christmas decorations abound.
A closer look at the Christmas tree, and the fancy looking (throne-like) chair for Santa to sit in (I presume).
Thought it was interesting to see if Italian game stores would be different… I think that Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy game box is really big! Haha.
Full size photo on one of the walls in the hallway of the mall. It’s almost like you’re there, right?
More of those photos of Venice. Looks nice when there’s no rain interfering with the view…
The bottom part of the montage.
Zoomed in on that one part of the image. It’s pretty nice.
Stopped by an Italian makeup brand store – KIKO – and bought a bottle of nail polish in this really brilliant shade of blue. Didn’t snap a photo of it though. Afterwards, we continued meandering around the mall.
Lovely window display.
Another window display in the same store.
C wanted to buy some Italian coffee for her dad so we consulted the mall directory and found that there was a Carrefour (a supermarket). I found a big bag of Socado (Italian brand) chocolates for around 6 euro. It was a big bag with four different flavours – Stracciatella, Tiramisu, Amaretto, and Cappuccino. They were really popular as souvenirs for my friends & family back home (I redistributed the candy, giving each person four chocolates – one of each flavour). I should have bought another bag – or two. They were that good. And for a pretty good price too.
Travel tip: for budget souvenirs, I suggest visiting a local supermarket to find some local (made in country-you’re-visiting goods).
It was also fun to see the other foods that were available in the supermarket and whether they were different from what we had back home – there were dried fish hanging on a line and other interesting foods – while we searched for the coffee aisle.
Lottery ticket machine! (I think…)
Magazine rack full of Italian magazines. Looks similar to the magazines back home…
After paying for our purchases, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel to pack up, check out and head off to the pier.
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