Floating Through a Sinking City

So I've decided that I am skipping Milan in my blog for now because we visited the city for the World Expo and my phone died halfway through. I want to give the experience justice and need pictures from Joe's phone to do so. Onto Venice (which apparently is slowly sinking)!

I had booked a "mobile home for 2" at Camping Villlage Jolly because it was the only thing in our budget that wasn't an hour away from Venice (which I just found out is an island). We arrived way late and found our allocated camper uncleaned and sheets unchanged. Joe took charge and spoke with the attendant who decided it was easier to just upgrade us to a deluxe room for the whole week. It was swank (for a mobile home ha). 

This little gadget makes the smoothest coffee I've ever had!

We spent most every day sleeping in, drinking an espresso (or three), catching the bus to Venice, then wandering the canals. We toured the secret back area of the Doge's Palace and got to see the prison cells (even Casanova's) and high officials offices. We also were able to walk above the largest room in the building, 53x25 meters, without a single column supporting it!

We took ferries to the cemetery island, the glassblowing island, and the lace factory island. I never knew there was such random specialized artisans in Venice! Joe bought a beautiful Venetian mask, I bought a lot of gelato. We tried a Spritz, the classic before dinner drink, which consists of Aperol (or Campari) and prossecco. It was as bitter and terrible as it sounds.

Joe loves tiramisu! I love $4 half liters of wine!

Two things I still don't totally understand though:

1) No one pays for the buses in Italy. At least in both Venice and Milan, none of the locals even cared to tap on before just taking a seat. Makes me wonder if the officials are too lazy to enforce it or if the locals just started refusing to pay for their short bus trips. Either way, we ended up paying about $20 for two weeks worth of daily round trips. Not bad.

2) Why do we change the names of foreign cities in English? In Italy, Milan is called Milano and Venice is Venezia. I think it is disrepectful to change immigrants names to something easier to pronounce and I believe it a similar dishonor to change the cities. They are usually named after a historical figure or tribe and it seems audacious to just switch letters around to ease our tourist minds. Just my two cents.