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hi I'm Gary B from tips for travelers
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and in this video I'm going to tell you
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how to make the most of Venice how to
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survive this crazy crazy City the
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historic part of Venice has a population
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of around about 60,000 permanently the
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bigger are area has about 250,000 but
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the city gets between 50,000 and 60,000
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tourists a day it's manically busy and
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so with these tips that I'm going to
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give you this will tell you how you make
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the most of your trip to Venice my first
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tip is watch my mustsee and must do
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Venice video now don't go there straight
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away because at the end of this video I
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will have the whole video and it tells
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you what you absolutely should see if
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you're in Venice and so my second tip
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for making the most of Venice is plan
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when you come 500 cruise ships visit
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every single year and that is really
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when Venice gets really packed so I'm
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here at the beginning of October when I
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video this and we've been here for 2
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days and there's been five cruise ships
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every day so the city gets packed with
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cruise passengers lots of Tours Etc so
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one of the things to do is to look at
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the time of year so if you come in March
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which is really before the cruise season
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starts or you come in October when the
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cruise season is kind of wrapping up you
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probably will find it a little bit
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quieter one of the things I would
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suggest you do if you're planning to
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visit is take a look at a site like
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cruise tims.com and search for Venice
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and that will tell you how many cruise
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ships are going to be in the town when
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you're here and that gives a sense of
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just how you know packed the city will
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be the other thing to do is it gets very
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very busy on weekend lots of people come
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to Venice for romantic weekends so if
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you can try and avoid the weekend in
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terms of time of year so that's really
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March and October are great times of the
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year to come when they likely to be
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quieter my third tip really is one of
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the big challenges of Venice is a
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massive big tourist trap because so many
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visitors come into Venice and it's
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really just built up this whole industry
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of lots and lots of tourist traps a
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couple of things that you should
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absolutely look out for in some of the
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big tourist centers like St Mark Square
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be extremely careful because you might
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find having a round of coffees between
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three or four of you could cost you
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€100 because a lot of those places will
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charge you up to €25 that's nearly $30
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simply for sitting down that's before
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you've even ordered your coffee so
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really before you go into any place
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check if they're going to charge you as
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sort of a cover charge for simply being
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there the second thing is really avoid
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restaurants which have multiple
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languages because you're probably going
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to get ripped off because they are
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really uh tourist trap places the food's
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not great so again places like near
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Rialto Bridge you'll also find it just
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uh crazy busy if you really want to have
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Italian gelato one of the things I would
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strongly recommend you do is again avoid
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tourist areas if you find gelet gelato
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which is very brightly colored and
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really sort of uh you know piled up high
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like that it probably is not proper
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genuine homemade gelato it's probably
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more kind of manufactured and sort of
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whipped up so it's probably not going to
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be proper gelato another thing to watch
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out for is you'll find various people
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setting up stores selling sort of
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designer bags again clearly they're all
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fakes and really be very careful that
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you don't get ripped off and Confused
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over pricing but certainly remember
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those bags are going to be fake bags and
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so my next tip is around souvenirs the
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two most popular souvenirs within Venice
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are Morana glass and mask of course
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Venice is famous for its mask balls
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however again be extremely careful
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because a lot of those you will find are
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basically made in China so you'll find
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glass which is very inexpensive it's not
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Morana glass it's probably Chinese and
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again there's lots of masks which are
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really inexpensive if you genuinely want
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to buy Italian made glass and beautiful
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Italian uh masks you're going to pay a
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lot of money so make sure that you again
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avoid the sort of the big tourist areas
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the little stalls on the side of the
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canals uh and you know perhaps if you
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really want to buy Morano glass actually
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head out to Morano Island then you can
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be absolutely sure it is you know
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genuine another thing that people of
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course like to do when they come to ven
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is just go on a Gonda ride however be
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very careful cuz this could end up
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costing you a lot of money so only go on
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a Gonda ride if you really want to be
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able to tick It Off The Bucket List so
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it's likely to cost you around 80 for
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about a 40-minute ride and then it goes
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up in increments every 20 minutes so it
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could cost you another €40 so it could
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cost you around $100 the price goes up
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fairly significantly after 7:00 at night
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when it becomes €100 so you like to be
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paying $20 and again you have increments
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of around about €40 for every 20 20
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minutes after that so it is a pretty
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expensive thing to do so only really do
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it if you really want to just be able to
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tick it off a great alternative to doing
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a gondola ride which personally I prefer
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is the water buses uh because it costs
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around €0 for a 24-hour pass so that's
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$25 and they have great great itineries
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they're very easy to work out the maps
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are really good they're very well
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signposted and even if you end up going
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the wrong direction you know it's not a
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very big city you just jump off and get
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on in the other direction but it's about
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€20 for a 24-hour pass it goes down the
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Grand Canal it heads pretty much
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everywhere you want to go and I think
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it's a much better way than going on a
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gondola personally also you get a chance
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to take great photographs um you know
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lot the video I've taken in in this I've
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taken basically from the the the water
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buses my next tip is that Venice gets
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very hot and very sticky in summer and
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in Winter it gets really cold you know
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it's surrounded by water and it gets
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very very hot very humid and also gets
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very cold so again you know make sure
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that you're prepared if uh you know it's
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very expensive to buy things like water
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so if you're here in summer you perhaps
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bring your own water and make sure that
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you really do wrap up warm if you're
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here in Winter the other thing to be
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prepared for is what's known as the a
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ala Thea ala are the floods that
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basically swamp parts of Venice
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particularly St Marks Square uh every
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single year they have 100 of them every
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year and it's basically caused by high
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tides but there is 100 so there's quite
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a strong chance that when you're in
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Venice you might find them they tend to
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be more sort of in winter time uh so
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what you will find and you'll see them
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dotted around the city are these sort of
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risen platforms and you kind of wonder
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what they for but when when it floods
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basically they lay those out as Pathways
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so that you can kind of walk along those
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Pathways one of the best ways to get a
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great experience out of Venice is to get
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lost don't just stick in the main
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tourist areas just go down side roads
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and walk along and you'll come across
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great canals great Bridges and it'll be
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much quieter like for example the one
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that I'm actually on right now uh it
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gets so packed so busy in the busy parts
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of Venice and it's quite nice just to
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head down these little canals and you'll
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find little uh taxis going down you'll
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find little shops and one of the great
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places if you head to St Mark's Square
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with uh the Waterfront and you know in
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front of you turn left and just keep
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walking and walking you'll get to a
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region called Castell that's where lots
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of the locals live and there's some very
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beautiful houses it's very quiet no one
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really goes there but do that kind of
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thing just get lost and you'll soon find
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your way back CU you'll soon find your
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way back to on the canals it's not a
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very big city and it's very easy to find
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your way back so do get lost just get
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away from where the throngs are and
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really then you'll get a real sense of
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men and you'll get great great pictures
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probably one of the best tips that I can
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give you in Venice is to be an early
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bird and a late bir as I mentioned you
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know cruise ships come in and you know a
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lot of people get up late so actually if
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you want to really have benus to
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yourself and see great things get up
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early in the morning get out before all
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the crowds and before the cruise ships
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have sort of got everybody off be mind
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the cruise ships will arrive 7 8:00 9:00
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so it'll be a while before they get
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processed and head into the city so get
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up early and you know spend time there
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if you're not on a cruise ship the other
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thing that you do is later in the
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afternoon because bear in mind most
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people have to go back at their cruise
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ships because they'll set sale you know
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4:00 5 :00 or 6:00 so as the sun goes
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down I mean Venice is very beautiful and
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it's also a great time of course those
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you like to take pictures you know the
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morning and the evening of those of
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golden hours where you get great light
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and it's a brilliant time to take
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pictures and it's also so much more
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quiet and less crazy and uh that I would
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strongly recommend and so there you have
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it that's my tips on how do you make the
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most of this crazy City it's an amazing
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place it's oneof a kind it's a great
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place to visit be in mind it's going to
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be very busy it's a real tourist trap
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place and you need to be a little bit
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smarter how you do it so now watch the
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video about the must sea and things to
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do in Venice this amazing amazing City
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but it's packed it's busy it's a bit of
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a tourist scam so you really need to