Heather and Brad fly back to Regina tomorrow. It’s been so great to have them here. We are going to spend the day getting to know Venice together.
I had booked a walking tour with Federico months ago. He would meet us in St Mark’s Square at 9 am and teach us about Venice. It was a good long walk and then we knew we’d be going for a good long walk again, so we decided to take the water bus (Vaporetta) to St. Marks. We bought a day pass at the Tobacco shop across the street – then we could ride the Vaporetta as often as we’d like to throughout the day. Off we went to find the canal and the station.
Federico was great. He was so knowledgeable but made the history of Venice so interesting. He taught us about the entire Saint Mark’s Square and the surrounding area: the Procuratie, the Bell Tower, the Astronomical Clock Tower, the Basilica of Saint Mark and the Doge’s Palace. In the square is also the Florian Cafe. The oldest cafe on the globe. He walked with us to the “Bridge of Sighs” between the court room and the prison. When crossing, the prisoners were allowed to have one last look over the canal before they were led to their doom,
We took a gondola taxi over to a neighbouring island. There was a beautiful basilica and it was much quieter there and neat to explore the small streets. After exploring we were getting hungry so headed back for lunch and to do for a real gondola ride! How can you come to Venice and not? We got a great gondolier – he told us stories of the buildings we passed and the canals and occasionally broke into song!!! It was fun.
Jim and I headed back to the Airbnb and encouraged Heather and Brad to go have some exploration together and we’d meet for drinks and chiciti (like the Spanish tapas or our appetizers, but here they are mostly little sandwiches – you just order your drinks and go in and point to the ones you want to try and they bring them to the table- they are great – and when restaurants aren’t opening till 7 or later – it’s nice to have a bite at 4:30). Happy hour!
We walked to the train station to get transportation figured out for tomorrow and then it was time for our “farewell dinner” with Heather and Brad. We decided to go out for a nice dinner and it’s a good thing we didn’t find this little restaurant until our last day or we’d have eaten there all the time. Delicious and very reasonable.
The week has flown by. Heather and Brad got a good taste of Italy and we loved loved loved spending time with them.