Merchants of Venice

A portion of the ceiling in the portico
of the Basilica of San Marco 

Bell tower Piazza San Marco

 A final night in 'The Nest' our little apartment in Florence and then we were bound for Venice. The Italian train system again delivered us on time to start exploring the   streets and canals of Venice. Armed with a map on the iPad which lasted about 20 minutes before we bought a paper version we set out to tackle what must be the most confusing place to get around in the world. Changes of street names, lane ways that don't exist on maps, non sequential house numbers and then the canals which mean you have to backtrack and find another way. There was only once when we crossed a bridge and all of a sudden found we were on a street marked two streets to the south of where we thought we were. It was at this point that we almost gave up on the map and figured we would head in the general direction we wanted and then try to narrow it down once we were in the area. We did fairly well getting around and then getting back to our luggage before sorting out the Vaporetto to get to our accommodation which gave new meaning to the idea of small and was another great example of Italians making use of every available piece of space in their houses. The bathroom was literally the area under the stairs which in Australia we would probably make a cupboard if we utilised it at all.

Simply watching the life of Venice was amazing - the ambulance racing down the Grande Canal, the delivery barges carrying everything from groceries to linen to cranes and then the porters with their specially designed trolleys trundling down a laneway barely wide enough from their trolley to be met by another delivery guy heading in the opposite direction.

Mary Poppins?

Venice is certainly an amazing place - how they managed to bring in all the materials and then build the enormous marble palaces and churches is astounding. The other question is why they would build a whole city on what must be marsh land? We felt sure there was a lean on the bell tower in the Piazza San Marco!

Visits to the Basilica San Marco, Doges' Palace and the Ponte di Rialto for a lovely dinner were accomplished along with some shopping in amongst the streets and lanes. The pigeons in Piazza San Marco were a source of great entertainment for the adults and children alike! Elizabeth said she felt like she was on the set of Mary Poppins the musical feeding the pigeons!

The sun setting on San Marco's basilica

We decided that you should not visit Venice after you have been to Assisi as once again we were assaulted by hawkers and found that most places you visited wanted payment. Apart from the toilet at Assisi everything was free whereas even most of the churches wanted payment in Venice. It was 2 euros to go to the tomb of St Mark in The Basilica of San Marco where it was free to go to the crypt of St Francis and you needed to be quiet and respectful. Got to respect the credibility of the Franciscans.

Ponte di Rialto at night

Didn't do the gondola ride but did travel the Vaporetto at night to see the city lit up before continuing our journey through the Italian countryside on the train to Milan.