Our tour group was doing a walking tour of Venice this morning. We did one of those two years ago with the Queen Elizabeth, and we are suffering a little with head colds so we decided to just take our time this morning. There was a soccer match playing just across the canal this morning and the fans really were singing for their teams. Bob thought we'd go in to St Mark's Square with them and then just hang around for four hours or so, but we assured him we'd be just fine catching a vaporetto by ourselves down to St Marks later on. That way we could have a leisurely breakfast before meandering down to rejoin the group outside the Danieli hotel. Of course we did a spot of shopping on our way. I hope my girls like Venetian glass. We also chatted to a couple from Portugal, up near Oporto. They were meeting up with their daughter who is studying at uni (exchange) in Venice. Bob seemed quite relieved when we joined the group at the agreed time. I don't know what he expected. We were then put onto 4 different gondoliers and taken on quite an extensive back-alley tour of Venice. I couldn't take many photos this time - for some reason they put a singer and an accordion player in our gondolier so it was hard to frame any pictures. First world problem, I know. After this wonderful extensive musical tour, Bob took us to a private boat which took us to the other side of Guidecca to a glass factory. There we were shown how the glass blowing is done and taken to a special viewing area to have the wares demonstrated to us. And the hard-sell. I found some earrings exactly the same as those I'd purchased this morning, seven times dearer!!! After that we returned with most of the group to St Elena where we found a cafe that makes pizzas. We will all return at 7pm tonight!! They also sell beer and bottled Bellini!!!