We headed off this morning in search of a traghetto which will take you across the Canal Grande for €2 ($4) rather than the €6.50 ($13) the ferries charge, but after lots of walking and asking many times about them and being directed to the ferries we decided it was something the locals kept for themselves and resorted to the ferry to cross to Piazza San Marco (Saint Marks' Square)...us and every other tourist in Venice. There were tour groups everywhere, with the tour leader holding up all manner of stuffed toys or flowers etc on sticks so the tour members could find them if they became separated.

The square was also full of pigeons and stupid people feeding them and letting them land all over them...eek. We'd heard the basilica was particularly beautiful but as you weren't allowed in with a backpack on, Hayley went in on her own and I went later on. The outside was very beautiful, with lots of gold in the murals, it was hard to imagine that the inside could be any better but it was...huge beautiful murals everywhere. The sculptures on the building were incredibly detailed and interestingly it had a twenty-four hour clock on it, the first of two I saw in Venice.

On the other three sides of the square were shops and restaurants, in front of each restaurant was al fresco dining, and some of the restaurants had small groups of musicians playing lively music, I guess to entice and entertain potential diners.

We followed the signs from the square to the Rialto Bridge, the most famous of all the canal crossings in Venice, stopping along the way to look at the beautiful Murano glassware in the store windows. Some of the pieces were huge, four or five feet high, one in particular was a tree with three toucans in it with a price tag of €2500 ($5000), I'm not sure what sort of interior decor you'd have to warrant a piece like that, but it was quite spectacular.

Another bridge we saw on the way was the Ponte der Sospiri (Bridge of Sighs) so named because it was said the sighs of the prisoners could be heard as they crossed from the Doge's Palace to their new home in the prison. In all of the canals were gondolas carrying tourists around the city in this unique mode of transport. Mostly they were standard colours of black and red.

The Rialto Bridge itself was pretty magnificent considering it is a bridge and interestingly had small shops on it selling glassware, beautiful calligraphy sets and souvenirs.

Once across the bridge you are in the Rialto Markets where every second shop is selling souvenirs or Murano glassware...or faux Murano glassware. Just past the tourist markets were the local markets selling fresh produce, a huge variety of mushrooms and interesting looking fruit and vegetables. I bought a small tray of mixed berries which included strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries...they were delicious, full of flavour. We found a little cafe and stopped for a drink of juice and unwittingly ended up with a glass of orange juice (out of a bottle, not freshly squeezed) which cost us €4.50 ($9) each...it was obvious we had "tourist" written all over us.

It was early afternoon by the time we'd finished wandering the markets and side streets, we hadn't eaten and Hayley was pretty tired, so we stopped at another little cafe (checking out the prices first before ordering) where Hayley had a tasty tomato pasta and I had a nice salad. Hayley then headed back to the hostel for a sleep and I did some more exploring. I eventually ended up back at Saint Mark's Square with a pistachio gelato in my hand, watching as a young couple had their wedding photos taken in the square...by their photographer and a truck load of tourists. The bride looked lovely in a cream knee-length dress with black accessories...though the ankle to knee tattoos on the outside of both legs detracted a little from the overall look.

Back in the hostel we had some new people staying in our dormitory which was unlucky for them as we needed to be up at 5:30am the next day to begin our journey from Venice to Dublin.