Arrived in Venice. 28 July
Here we are in Venice!! We had a great drive here- totally uneventful and easy. We arrived on time and managed to find where we needed to go without too much fuss. After dropping off the little Peugeot, which served us well, we had a walk and 2 bridges (all steps) to deal with and utilized the services of some eager and unscrupulous porters to assist with our luggage. Curiously when we were over one bridge they wanted their money X 3!!!! We were not surprised by this, paid them the originally agreed amount and they went on their way!! We managed to make our way over the second bridge and then parked ourselves at a cafe to await the arrival of the agent who was to take us to our apartment. We were MIGHTY thirsty by that stage, so enjoyed some cold beers and a pizza (as you do in Italy!!) It was stinking hot today, so we were delighted that our little apartment has aircon. But more than that, we really do have views over the grand canal from 2 of our 5 windows!! Who'd 'a' thunk it??? Again, it's cute and has everything we need and in a fantastic, central location. We were quite exhausted from our trek to the apartment and the heat, so had a little siesta during the heat of the day in our lovely air conditioning. Early evening saw us wandering and enjoying the sights - loved the atmosphere of the water, boats, people and shops. We found a little cafe near our place and enjoyed our meal - Bwian had pasta and I had a Ceasar salad, washed down with beer and Chianti! We are really impressed with the few Chiantis we've had as it is quite quaffable, like our usual Shiraz at home. Finished off our evening stroll with some gelati - mmmm delizioso!!
Tomorrow we are thinking we'll go to The Lido, the beach area on The Adriatic Sea and have a look around there. We have a 1/2 day walking tour and gondola ride booked for Monday, so we'll do the St Marco's Square, Basillica etc etc on that day. All is wonderful! I'm just loving the practice of not watching the clock ... it's very liberating!!! Anyway - no wifi at the apartment so our blog entries over the next few days will happen whenever we find access!!
Hope all is good with you at home and that you are enjoying the Olympics. We watched a bit of the Opening Ceremony in Siena last might, but can't find any TV coverage here in Venice :-(
Buona notte xx