WEDNESDAY 27th JUNE 2012

VENICE

Our visit to the famous city of Venice this morning started early to beat the heat and the vast crowds of tourists that come here, especially in summer.
The coach took us to a dock with huge parking areas where we boarded a water taxi which took us along a big waterway passed some huge private yachts and eventually to the area of St Mark or as locally called San Marco!
This is where the Venice we see in all the movies and history lessons start. We got off our boat at one of hundreds of little piers, each one with dozens of boats unloading thousands of tourists, typical "organized chaos"!
From there we walked to San Marco Square, crossing a number of little bridges which were the entrances to all the tiny waterways that snake around the city linking all the homes and buildings in the area! Already there were dozens of gondolas taking tourists for a quick trip.
St Marks Basilica was the feature of the square - a beautiful cathedral towering over the old cobblestones of the square - with a huge queue of people already waiting to look over it.
After getting our instructions for the rest of the day we took an elevator to the top of a bell tower for amazing views of the city and the lagoon - right out to the ocean - it was absolutely spectacular!
We had a few minutes to kill before another boat ride so with the girls desperately wanting a toilet we went into the Metropole Hotel, a very old and grand place right on the waterfront, and ordered four coffees so we could use their toilets! The coffees came with some delightful little cakes and we downed them, did our business and grabbed the bill - just a lazy 36 Euro!!!! Bloody expensive toilet stop!!!!!
A demonstration of Murano Glass blowing was next, at a factory located some way away in an industrial type area.
We watched spellbound as the chap made some jugs and a glorious horse. So clever! We were taken into the display area and marveled at all the beautiful glasses, artwork and jewelry, it was really something special!
From there we headed back to San Marco and had our turn in a gondola! It was a bit corny, with a bloke playing the accordion and another one singing, but with eight gondolas strung out over a fair way none of us got much serenading! It was great to see the narrow little canals and the old houses, but with all the waste water and sewerage running straight into the water it was very smelly!
Once back we again got a boat, this time out to an island about forty five minutes away in a newer area where we were treated to a magnificent lunch - a huge meal of seafood risotto, seafood lasagna, fish, calamari and prawns, and finishing with peanut brittle and biscuits dipped in amoretti! All this accompanied by a quaffable light red wine! Phew!! Suffice to say we made pigs of ourselves and by the time the boat had brought us back to San Marco most of us were nearly asleep! We had a while to fill in before the coach was to take us back, so we wandered the back streets and window shopped a bit amongst the name brand shops! I found a Vodafone shop and sought help in trying to get a 3G signal on my phone, but rude and arrogant bloke basically told me to b***** off! The Vodafone service in Europe is a crock and for anyone heading over there and wanting to use a local service, stay away from Vodafone!!!! Not interested in helping anyone!
We got back to the hotel around seven and decided not to have dinner after our huge lunch, so just showered then sat around and talked a while before going to bed pretty early!
So our visit to Venice was a real surprise to me! All I expected was old buildings, tiny canals and lots of gondolas! We saw all those, but also the huge lagoon, the masses of islands and the thousands of boats ranging from dinghies to huge cruise ships! It was a great day and we are so glad our tour stopped here!