Italy - Day Five - Venice

A quiet day for us. And because Helen's birthday yesterday was somewhat dampened by the stress of travel, and having the worry of train tickets left at home, we decided to have another shot at her birthday.

At the recommendation of Riccado, our B&B host, we walked across the city to Rialto, to the markets. The weather turned a little humid. We find the Rialto Bridge, and got photos of the grand canal. It's still early for Venice. Most boats on the river are working boats, the Venice equivalent of couriers, mostly carrying food and drinks, to all the restaurants and shops around the city.

We head to the markets, open every morning. They are amazing; fresh meat and fish, cheeses, and fruit and vegetables. The smells, the sounds, all good! We get some fresh fruit to eat, and sit on the side of the canal watching the world go by.

Next we try a traghetto, recommended to us as "3 minutes of fun". Basically it's a gondola, in lieu of a bridge, to get people across the Grand Canal quickly. We pay 1 euro to get both of us across. Some people stand, as it means more people can fit on the boat. We choose to sit as Helen's not too confident.

After that, we walk through some more streets, and near the train station we purchase a 24 hour ticket for the Vaporetto. We ride it all the way around the Grand Canel, and around the long way past where the cruise ships park up, and past the Hilton. This takes us to San Giorgio Maggiore. As recommended to us by our B&B, we had plans to go up the bell tower to get a view, but the church was closed until 2pm. So we headed back across to Piazza San Marco again on the Vaporetto. From here, we went on foot and proceeded to get lost down a set of back roads, doing some shopping, and generally taking in the Venice atmosphere. We eventually found our bearings and went to a restaurant near our B&B that we knew to be air conditioned. We were treated to a selection of beers, and soft drinks, with a 2 course meal. From there we went back to the B&B to relax until later.

We decided riding the Vaporetto was the best plan for us. It's cheap, entertaining, and most of all cool out on the water and so very scenic. We head off around at dusk for another round on the water, taking over an hour. The air is still warm, and the dusk air is beautiful and fresh. The sunset was incredible! This photo is not enhanced by Photoshop, it really was this colour!

After that we walked around trying to find somewhere to eat. We do end up eating, eventually, by this time around 10pm! A late end to our lazy day.

So far, we've not managed to get confirmation that somebody is going to our flat in Edinburgh to rescue our train tickets. This continues to cause us stress as we wait for our cellphone to ring.