Following yesterday’s moment of madness, and hopefully this holiday’s one-and-only faux pas, we still managed to get up at a reasonable hour, giving us ample time to do a full day to explore Venice. After our (not so hearty) breakfast, we set off on our first (book) guided walk, taking us past and into multiple churches along our route to San Marco Piazzo.
As we have every intention of making the most of our time in the city, we decided to purchase a special Venice Tourist ticket, which will grant us free access to public transport and some of the museums and churches, which Venice seems to have plenty of. So equipped, we embarked on a tour by water taxi around Venice and surrounding islands in the lagoon, ending up at Murano, famed for its glass. After obligatory viewing of Glass Blower in action, Astrid proceeded to buy up half the entire island’s stock of glassware, much to Visa’s consternation, who subsequently put a block on her card!
As it turned out, we couldn’t have picked a better day to be starting our Venice trip as today was the local annual Regatta. This meant the streets were rather packed and, as it turned out, the main waterways, especially the Grande Canal, were closed to normal traffic for most of the afternoon. Alas, not only were the city’s inhabitants confined to walking, it also meant that tourists intent on entering or leaving the city were forced to drag their luggage through the very congested Venetian alleyways – including therefore Dave and Kerri who had just arrived from Dubai to start their cruise holiday.
While we therefore enjoyed the Regatta from a prime viewing location close to the famous Rialto Bridge, Dave and Kerri spent an hour dragging their considerable luggage (and carcasses) to their B&B. After dumping their gear, we met up for a very pleasant dinner to finish the day – and what better way to do so than with a glass of Grappa, washed down with fine Lemoncello!!
No comments:
Post a Comment