When we arrived on Sunday the plan was to leave today, but a text on Monday, from friends who arrive this morning on a cruise call, meant an extra night's site fee allows us to meet them in the city this afternoon. We are up late today as we were very late to bed last night, and catch the 13:10 bus. On the way in we see their ship dwarfed by three giant ones in the terminal. We make the now familiar trip to the biggletteria [ticket office] and board the vapore...

After being late and hacked off with last night we have a lie-in to recharge ourselves. After breakfast Ali rescues the clothes which were dumped on the ground and is mildly pleased that only a small bundle needs re-washing. Nick investigates routes for the great escape; Austria, Switzerland or France. Around midday we head up to the bus stop, ride into Venice and board the No.1 to San Marco, otherwise known as St Mark's Square. The boat is never more than a t...

Last night we fell asleep to thunder, lightning and rain. This morning is warm and bright as we go a few hundred metres from the campsite entrance to the bus stop. Less than 10 minutes later we alight at the bus station in Piazzale Roma and stop to get our bearings beside the canal we last saw seven years ago. We decide that today we will go to Murano, the island famous for glass blowing and sculpting, so we go to the ACTV office for our vaporetti tickets....

We are woken at 07:30 this morning, after a really good sleep, by the rumble of engines as an AIDA cruise ship manoeuvres onto its wharf. At 08:00 the car park begins to fill again but we don't know where the people all go. At 09:50 we set off towards Venice some 110 miles north and after skirting Ravenna we join the S309. Traffic is light and the road is straight as we begin crossing the Po Delta. Flat land below the road gives way in places to lakes and irr...