If you read my School’s out Friday post, then you’ll know that I’m in Venice on a school camp. It sure beats the kind of school camps I participated in when I was a student. I have fond memories of my time at Glemaggie in Gippsland, but it kind of pales into insignificance in comparison to the experience these kids are having.

I’m traveling with a wifi only iPad 2, and I’m struggling a bit without a whole lot of Internet access. We’ve not yet had an opportunity to get a data roaming sim card for my phone, so I’m confined to the lobby of our hotel to get anything out on the web. I’m writing a blog for our parents so that they know how things are going, and it’s great to see them leaving comments for their children already. It really does help parents feel at ease about their kids being so far away when they can see photos showing them smiling and obviously happy.

Venice doesn’t seem to have wifi hotspots. Any networks I’ve seen pop up without a lock all require a log in. I have seen a few tourists wandering around with iPads in hand, and I’ve been using the one I have to take photos of the group, because they are then really easy to insert into a post using the BlogPress app. If you ever us it, remember to save your posts as you go along. There’s nothing worse than writing a whole slab and then finding it crashes and you lose everything and have to start again.

Back to Venice though. It’s a beautiful city, without any doubt. It’s a constant reminder of the generations that came before us, and you do start to wonder how it is that the architecture has remained intact. Today we visited the Doge’s Palace and the students were impressed with the opulence represented in the huge council chambers. They were then confronted with the cells that formed the prison system of the time, and pondered how people must have felt when they crossed the bridge of sighs to meet their fate.

In the afternoon we visited the Accademia, and took in our fair share of religious inspired art work. After a morning in the Doge’s Palace, they were a bit over it, and we caught the vaporetto back to our accommodation. It’s very interesting waiting for a boat instead of a bus!

The Piazza San Marco is a sight to behold. It’s familiar because it features in so many movies, but much more impressive in the flesh, so to speak!

Another full day in Venice tomorrow, then off to Florence for four days, before we go on to Assisi and then Rome. Interesting times ahead!

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:First stop, Venice