Venetian minds

 The next morning, with the second opera of the trip and our lives under our belt, we set off for Venice. It was only an hour or so drive away, but not surprisingly you can't drive around Venice, so we parked the car at Tronchetto (not the mainland, but not the heart of Venice either). We then had to get a people mover (monorail) to nearby Piazza de la Roma, and then get a vaporetto/boat to San Marco, tourist central and the pier not far from our hotel. On the vaporetto we passed several massive cruise ships and then rounded the corner close to the Grand Canal. I was pretty excited - I first came here in '89 and even as a 10 year old declared my love for it. I came back again 10 years ago but it rained the whole time which was hugely disappointing (not to mention I was poor, the dollar was worth about 60 Euros cents and Venice is very expensive!).

A canal, typical of the region 

We got off at San Marco into the seering heat and throngs of tourists and passed the countless stands selling Venetian masks and I Love Italia T-shirts. Crossed 3 bridges and then we were basically at our hotel, which turned out to be pretty big and thankfully very cool. After a quick chill, we went exploring. Our hotel was in a great location - quiet but also close to the action (and the main canal so we could always orientate ourselves!). We walked around the back alleyways (because I love them and they are also much cooler tucked away from the sun). Some alleys literally just lead you to a canal, so we just wandered round (without a map and not even getting lost! I am like a compass.)

Another canal, this one with more tourists

In search of lunch, we walked around casually looking at menus, some ridiculously priced which looked very average and weren't even on a canal! Complete tourist traps. Anyway, we found one place and I had a prosciutto/rockmelon dish again (Italian chefs must love me, but hey, do you really need more than those 2 ingredients? I think not.) and Ryan had a fairly average spaghetti carbonara (after getting shat on by a pigeon). I have never seen so many pigeons, nor pigeons that just do not care, in my life. The pigeons in Venice are complete honey badgers.

Hooray, a pic of both of us! On the famous Rialto bridge.

After lunch we had to go back home so Ryan could change into a poo-free shirt, and then basically just wandered. Some alleys and canals were completely quiet, and a then some were just swarming with tourists, shuffling along the narrow streets, mesmorised by the never-ending souvenir shops selling Venetian masks and Murano glass. It was pretty fun just randomly walking around without a map or any real destination. For dinner we'd passed a place near our hotel that seemed OK, so we gave it a go. I had a spaghetti vongole (little clams, basically just in olive oil), and Ryan had gnocchi followed by scallopini in white wine sauce (which he thought would be scallops, but was actually veal) but was delicious anyway. It was all great, and Ryan had complete meal envy of my spaghetti vongole.

Canal, by night

The next day we pretty much just wandered aimlessly around Venice, which is probably the best way to do it! Oh, Ryan's mobile had turned up, couriered by DHL (so that's why it cost 62 Euro) and so we stopped by the Vodaphone shop to pick up a SIM. We continued wandering until it started getting quite hot (which is pretty early - Venice is so humid that by 10am it's already a bit uncomfortable). We decided to picnic and got some takeaway panini/trammezini type things, and a bottle of Prosecco (to try and get our Venetian blind on) and head to some gardens not too far away. It was really nice to sit on the grass away from the throngs of tourists.

Italy has brought out the artiste in me

Later that afternoon we more or less chilled in the air-con of the hotel room and worked out where a good place to eat dinner might be. We turned, as always, to Trip Advisor. One place was recommended as being good, reliable, and not over the top expensive, so we went there. Ryan had spaghetti con vongole, following his meal envy the night before, and I had "squid Venetian style" which I didn't know what it was, but hey I love squid and I love Venice so how could it be bad? It turned out it was awesome - squid in squid ink sauce (which might put some people off) but squid in squid is a dream come true for me, and it was delicious!

Spaghetti con vongole, nominated as one of our favourite Venetian dishes

After breakfast the next day we wandered around a bit (mainly to kill time before we bought a 24 hour vaporetto pass that would still get us home the next day!) and passed through San Marco piazza and the throngs of tourists (this time of year there really are an enormous amount of tourists, and I continually question what people see in joining a massive tour group where they shuffle around with head phones in so they can hear the tour guide miles ahead). Anyway, we then headed out on a vaporetto to Murano, one of Venice's 113 islands, which is famous for its glass making. We popped into one of the factories and saw some of it being made. Having passed through hundreds of glass souvenir shops in Venice, it was actually quite impressive seeing it made from scratch from a hot-glowing bulb of glass. We walked around the shops looking at all their different products - it seemed as though the price really did reflect the quality. I saw some stunning little plates which I would have bought in a second, but at around 100 Euro for the size of a saucer? Probably not. It really was art though. Instead, I bought a lovely necklace which Ryan helped me pick out!

The Grand Canal

We had lunch on Murano too - I had prosciutto and melon for a change (apart from loving it, it makes me feel healthy, when I focus on the fruit aspect of it), and Ryan had some spaghetti dish which we can't really recall the details of right now, so mustn't have been that great. Anyway, back in town, we chilled in the cool hotel room for a while. As it turned out, the place where we had the yummy dinner the night before was actually the one around the corner from the one we thought we were going to on trip advisor! So we decided to go to the real one. Would you believe Ryan ordered the spaghetti vongole again, and I ordered the Venetian style squid (although it was cuttlefish this time) again?!?! But we did have some delicious (although expensive) scallops for entree. Anyway, this place was slightly more expensive, but as (and possibly more) delicous than the night before! So there certainly was some good dining to be had in Venice!

Venetian style cuttlefish, with grilled polenta