Thursday in Venice
We did pretty well at getting out early and headed straight to St. Marks.
The Rick Steves book had a trick on checking your bag and going to the start of the line. This worked and it was a good thing because the line was already very long.
We wandered around the church and its museums for about an hour and a half. We saw the famous bronze horses. You could be blinded by all the gold and mosaic that cover the inside of the building. There were lots of steps, some of them very tall. Our legs are getting quite the work out. We saw someone get on the boat in a wheel chair today. They could only do it because the tide brought the boat even with the dock. This is no place for someone who can’t or has trouble walking.
After retrieving our bag we stopped for pizza at a just OK place. We were pretty tired and hungry so it was fine.
We took the boat back home and we are nesting in for the next three hours or so. We have a long list of things we want to do this evening and late afternoon. We are running out of time. When we were first planning this trip I wondered if a week would be too long. This is not the case. There are still so many more things to do and see. There are a lot of untasted wonderful meals that will have to wait for another trip.
It would be sad to do Venice on a cruise or tour and only have a day or two here.
Neal took an afternoon walk and was late getting home by just a few minutes. I was afraid he was lost and he was.
We needed to leave by 5:30 because we were bound and determined to hit a cute little shopping street while the stores were open. Stores here open from 10:00 in the morning until 1:00 in the afternoon and then again from 3:00 until 7:00 or maybe 8:00. This is different in the real tourist areas where the stores can be open until 11:00. We did get to the shops on time but the dress shop that had the dress I had been lusting after was closed for vacation. We did go in a lovely masque shop that still made their own masques. There were so many and they were stunning.
Next we went for our gondola ride. The sun was just starting to set and the Grand Canal was at its best. We also went into some quiet areas of the city.
I should mention that earlier in the afternoon, a gondola with an accordion player came down our home canal.
We next headed for St Marks Square and the bell tower. We took the elevator to the top and our timing was perfect. Now the sun was really low and the evening was clear. You could see forever.
Although it was a little early, 8:00 or so, we were all hungry so we started to hunt for a place for dinner. We checked out a few before making our choice. I had the tiny shrimp I had read about and I finally got my risotto. It is always made for two people here and I am the only real fan. Neal split it with me and we selected the one with mixed sea food. It was worth waiting for and even Neal liked it.
We wandered through some winding streets with cute shops and got a little lost again. We finally made our way back to the Florian where we had hot chocolate and listened to the music.
We took the boat back to Acadamia and started walking home from there. Of course we got lost again. The streets just turn in circles with endless bridges with never ending steps. Things finally started looking familiar and we found our front door at last.
The streets here always feel safe even in the middle of the night you run into other lost wanderers.