(L) We had gone to bed at 8.30 and I slept all night without getting up once… minor miracle! Both of us were awake by 6 am and dying for a cup of tea…. we had some teabags we’d brought with us from Ireland but had no mugs or kettle. Fortunately we had gone through this last night, both of us longing for a cuppa in our room and wondering what we should do to make it happen, until finally Deb had gone to reception and after a disjointed conversation where the guy was somewhat perplexed that we would want a jug of boiling water he had conjured up a pot of steaming water for her and said anytime we want some to just come down and ask! Yay!! 

It was my turn this morning so armed with my jug I ran down the stairs and burst into reception only to find the night receptionist fast asleep in one of the lounge chairs, head back and snoring …. it was hilarious as I came to a complete stop and ever so carefully tippy toed backwards trying not to let my shoes squish on the floor all the while keeping my eye on him to ensure he wasn’t startled awake by my abrupt entrance and sneaky departure ( I had commented to Deb as I left the room that I was wearing my noisy shoes as they’re rubber and make a squishy noise on tiles!!!). 

Not long after I made it back undetected to the room I heard voices outside and looked out to find the laundry men knocking on the door and trying to gain admittance to drop off the days clean linen and no doubt pick up the dirty ones too. Phew…. at least we know he’ll be awake now so I gave him a few minutes and went back downstairs for some boiling water to make our tea!! 

Ok, so tea was at around 6.30 and breakfast is at 7.30 so we mucked around with computers trying to upload photos for yesterdays blog. OMG this is the slowest WiFi we have yet encountered and we are still trying to get all the photos uploaded, needless to say we may have to post the blog with only a few photos and add extras when we get good internet. 

Breakfast, which is included in the room rate, was a buffet in a separate building around the corner. It was ok … lots of pastries, yoghurt, fruit, juice etc but not in the class of the gorgeous breakfasts we had in Greece or even the B & B in Ireland, still it was food in the belly to start the day.

The original plan was to get out nice and early to beat the crowds but well, you know, plans change so by the time we got out there was bus loads around… mainly Asian and French we’ve noticed! So, started our journey of discovery…. yes lets set off to see the Rialto bridge… haha funny! It would probably be a 15 minute walk if you knew where you were going but us, being us, decided we wanted to wander mapless and Janeless. Well one and a half hours later we did find the Rialto Bridge and had a wonderful time discovering all sorts of laneways and canals along the way. We did end up at one stage in the square where we had a glass of wine last night, coming in from a completely different direction, and both of us were falling about laughing as Deb first recognised our location and I was denying it was “that place” as we were both under the impression we were somewhere completely different (shades of Doolin…much??!!). So if you know Venice at all this particular spot is off the Riva degli Schiavoni and we thought we were headed for the Rialto Bridge…. OMG we went to Accademia, Dosodoro, Celestia …. ummmmm yes we were wandering around aimlessly, but boy did we have fun!! 

At one point there was a man, might I say a rather well dressed one, begging for money “I’m hungry” he said. We feel bad but know if you give to one you’re a target (like in Greece we were thinking?) so politely said no but he seemed to be following us and we kept seeing him everywhere we went! He did approach us several more times and we started getting quite nervous and paranoid about walking down quiet alleys thinking we would be “jumped”….. finally we agreed he is probably used to rejection if begging is his trade so managed to shake off the oppressive “victim” like feeling we were having. 

We wandered more and found a nice place to have a pizza and bottle of vino for lunch and at only €20 we thought a bargain, this was also a handy toilet stop and funnily enough as I went out to the loo there was a little area with Pokies... really shocked and amazed as this was the last thing I expected to find in Venice!! Full again we headed on to Piazzale Roma where we thought we might once again avail ourselves of a bathroom however following the signs we entered the toilets only to find we had to pay €1.50 to enter through the gates... "expensive wee" Deb commented as we decided we could probably wait. However, if you do go in, there is a map of Venice with all the public toilets clearly marked! Could come in handy if you don't want to go into somewhere for a hot chocolate or pizza! We then caught the #2 Vaporetto but this time heading towards Rialto. It’s pretty magical cruising down the Grand Canal and we happily snapped away. “Home” again at our San Marco stop we alighted from the Vaporetto and as we wandered back to our Hotel we stopped and booked ourselves on tomorrow's 11am tour to the Islands - Murano, Burano and Torcello.

Home to try to get pics uploaded and more blog written before venturing out once again to find some dinner!

We went out just wanting a nice place for a meal sitting outside, we wandered up into Piazza San Marco then out again into the laneways..... we had passed a great looking place yesterday and I had taken a photo of it so we could find it again so we asked Jane where it was and she plotted a course. As we started following poor ol' Jane went into conniptions trying to work out where we were and where we should be going... note to self.... Venice is just unmappable!! There are just too many lanes, alleys, canals etc and there is no obvious town planning, no order to the chaos that is the mass of alleyways and pathways to follow. Just get lost... wander.... don't worry where you're going, just enjoy the scenery. We haven't seen all the "tourist hotspots" .. haven't been inside the Doges Palace or climbed to the top of the Campanile but we have wandered and had the most wonderful time just seeing all that is the magnificence of Venice!

We actually ended up back at the place we had lunch at the very first day and it was absolutely delicious. I had a spinach and ricotta cannelloni, after I asked for gnocchi but only if it was vegetarian...... the waiter told me I needed cannelloni!! Deb had a spaghetti carbonara "without mushrooms" (just to be sure) and we (I) finished with Tiramisu which was yummy!! We both had a Limoncello which was OMG so yummy. 

Home by 8.. late night! But we did buy a bottle of red for the room! Not 5 minutes after we'd come up we decided we'd like a cup of tea so I volunteered to take our jug down...... the minute I entered the reception area the receptionist (who was on the phone with another guest in front of him) called out "hot water"!!!! The other guy took our jug and return post haste with a jug full of boiling water... "mille grazie" I smiled at him ... "prego" he replied (everyone says prego at every chance)!! 

Time now for a quick wander on the waterfront then bed!! Well that was the plan but when we got down to the reception area and offered the duty manager our key so Deb could go out for a smoke he offered us the patio area.... nice little spot that we had no idea existed. Deb asked if we could bring our wine down from upstairs so we spent a good hour down there drinking and chatting.

(D) What a fabulous, wonderful day we have had..... just the wandering of streets with a destination in mind but not really having a clue where we were going and to be honest not really caring either. We had ourselves quite a few giggles at how clueless we were, as Liane said the time we ended up COMPLETELY in the opposite area of where we thought we were was a good example, though the sad but hilarious thing is that over and over again it just kept happening and yet it doesn't matter because everywhere is just so beautiful - I love Venice! Throw in a bit of rocks, paper, scissors decision making just for fun and though yes goodness did we walk around in circles, it still seems to me to be the very best kind of travelling!

One of the things we enjoy the most when we travel, other than getting lost of course, is the people watching and the things that you notice that are different and interesting. In Venice some things that have struck us are the amount of people with dogs (usually on leads and very friendly and well behaved) and also the lack of stray animals. Honestly I don't think we've seen a single unaccompanied dog or cat at all - even once!

And then there's the "military" presence - even just wandering today on three separate occasions we noticed camouflage wearing soldiers carrying what looked like plastic toy (but undoubtedly weren't!) machine guns. Rather startling but perhaps reassuring? I'm still undecided!

On a whole other note we have the PJ's, our incredibly discreet code for "puffy jackets" - those kind of plastic looking quilted coats. It is unbelievable just how many people wear them, no doubt they are really comfy and warm to start with but don't they get too hot??!! Liane and I are constantly surprised by how warm it is - I was walking around in just a long sleeved T-shirt all day and was perfectly comfortable and happy. Each time we did stop for a meal or a drink, even tonight, we chose to sit outside as it's just too warm in the heating indoors..... and yet every second person is walking around in their puffy jackets!

And one last thing..... we LOVE listening to the fabulously gorgeous Italian accent all over the place. It's really striking what a musical and passionate language it is, so often you turn startled as you hear raised voices thinking an argument is in progress but no...... it's just Italians talking to each other. Loving Italy!!!