Doing Venice

Thursday 10 September

Brilliant blue skies and a calm warm day for our Venetian "experience".  The main aim of the day was for Stefano to see best of Venice and soak up the atmosphere, so armed with a vaporetto day pass we made our first stop by the Rialto Bridge.

Grande Canal

  It was wall to wall tourist central, the bridge was half covered with scaffolding and a huge advertising sign - probably something to do with Bienniale - and we didn't really know where we were going, although lunch was definitely on the agenda.

Rialto Bridge

 After a bit of a wander around some confusing back streets and not being inspired by any of the eating places in the area, Stefano decided to ask a local shopkeeper for a recommendation. This led us back to the Grande Canal with its long line of tourist menu restaurants but no sign of the one we were seeking.  Finally we chose a rather elegant looking place which was not at all busy but seemed to have an interesting menu.  It turned out to be really 5 star with great food and service - not to mention a great price, but that is Venice for you.  Anyway we thoroughly enjoyed our meal and watching the passing parade of boats and people on and beside the waterway.  It was lovely to be a little isolated from the craziness outside.

Vinaria Restaurant by the Grande Canal

Have "done" lunch we moved on via vaporetto to St Mark's Square.

En route to St Mark's Square

  Great views of the amazing architecture as we motored along the canal and more crowds to greet us at San Marco - a good humoured crowd on this perfect sunny afternoon.

Isola San Giogio Maggiore - across the way from St Mark's Square 

  The Ducale Palace was almost sparkling in the sun, the beautiful basilica was partially covered in scaffolding  and the queues for the Torre dell' Orologia were long.

Jess and Stef - St Mark's Square

  Nevertheless it was fun to wander the streets, window shopping and picking out landmarks like the Bridge of Sighs.

Bridge of Sighs

 In need of coffee we returned to St Mark's Square and paid an exorbitant price for cappuccino (9 euros+ a pop) just to sit in the square, take in the views and listen to the live music  - admittedly all were of a very high standard!

Coffee time - St Mark's Square

A little shopping for some Murano glass and then last on the list, a gondola ride - one of those things to tick off I guess, but highly overrated.  For the princely sum of 80 euros a very jaded gondolier (36 years in the business) took us under the Bridge of Sighs and through a maze of canals.

Gondola experience with Jessica and Stefano

  Lots of interesting old buildings to see, their colours glowing in the late afternoon light.  Venice is beautiful indeed and Stefano has enjoyed getting to know a little of this unique city.

"Backstreets" of Venice - on our gondola ride

We walked through the streets back to Rialto and queued for a very crowded vaporetto back to our home stop.  It was lovely to walk down the quiet lane to our beautiful apartment - a tranquil space in the midst of so much chaos.
Later in the evening we strolled around the corner to a quaint local pizzeria and enjoyed a dinner in a pretty walled courtyard with the locals.
Could not have asked for better weather for our day in Venice but we are looking forward to moving on to the coast.  We will be early out the door and on the vaporetto to Tronchetto to pick up the car - then it is eastwards to the Slovenian seaside town of Piran.