One of my favorite plans when I visit a new city is to go as high as I can to get a panoramic view of the place. When I visited Nice back in January I read that the Colline du Chateau overlooking the Baie des Anges offered an amazing view of the city. So I climbed all the stairs and after a good walk (later on I found there was an elevator, but never mind) I was rewarded with an amazing view of the old town, the bay and the sea.

Venice is one of those places you can read about in many different guides or websites, hear stories from the people who have been there already and browse photo galleries, but nothing compares to actually going to Venice by train, get off at the Santa Lucia train station and start strolling around the narrow streets, crossing bridges until you get lost or, if you are lucky, find by chance the Rialto bridge. I found a connection flight back to Dublin passing by Venice and I got the chance to spend a couple of days in the Italian former city state.