Mick again. The body clock seems to be closer to adjustment as it was all of 5 am - and still dark and quiet except for the gentle sound of the odd marine diesel - when I woke today. Big plans. We had located a group called La Bussola - The Compass- which provides free walking tours of Venice every day. Full of confidence we put ourselves down for both the morning and the afternoon three hour tours. Very Gilligan's Island, no? En route to the pickup point we m...

Mick on duty again. Our sleep patterns were a bit disrupted last night- residual jet lag and what I hope is the tail end of the cold I've had for a fortnight. I gave up on sleep about 6 and managed some communications with our host in Rome and the SMH cryptic before the day got under way properly. A few reflections on our first time staying in Venice - our previous visits were day trips. If someone said: "Hey. I've got a great idea. Let's build a city in a swam...

Anne here. Given the uncertain weather, we decided to spend the day on Murano, one of the small islands nearby. We got the vaporetto there and back with the locals after purchasing a two day ticket which we can use as much as we like. Each stop was announced as we approached but not on the return trip. Once on Murano we saw two glass blowing demonstrations but felt no obligation to buy any of the quite beautiful pieces on display. Watching a beautiful glass horse...

The big day - our 40th wedding anniversary, and we're spending it in Venice. Mick here How did we get here? We thought you'd never ask. From door to door it was a long 30 hours. To the airport. Queued behind the North Sydney Boys'Concert Band to check in. They were well behaved, but a lot of well behaved young men is still a lot of checking in, particularly with all the instruments. We , on the other hand were as free as birds, carrying only the 7 kilo carr...

The big day has dawned. All that remains is packing and passing the time until our 2145 flight to Venice with a short stop at Dubai. Both of us are changing jobs on return so the last few weeks have involved lots of farewells. We are all set to celebrate our 40th anniversary in style on the 10th. Watch this space!