We woke up pretty early considering how late we got to bed last night. We had breakfast at the hotel. It’s always interesting the interpretation of American tourist breakfast. They’ve had scrambled eggs most mornings and some sort of sausage, this morning the sausage looked like hot dogs. No thanks. I chose a hard boiled egg, toast, an apricot croissant and because I wanted to try it something that looked like coffee cake. I find myself over eating because I want to try all the new foods. I also had a kiwi. And coffee with hot milk. : ) yes I really ate all that. Walking and touristing is hard work. We were going to St. Marcos square first. We had a walk from the guidebook planned and then taking the bus through the grand canal and what ever we could fit in. There are mall like areas in the “streets”. The one near our house has some designer stores and also some tourist shops. We had to stop at several places. I tried to convince my mom to keep moving but it was hard. Right on the corner of the square there was no use trying to redirect anymore I just let her shop. It was a glass shop and there was jewelry need I say more. After that we walked onto the square it was really long with the church at the end. There were people feeding pigeons in the square. We didn’t but we watched. We got in line to go into the church. It didn’t take too long before we were inside. Churches here are really impressive. They have a real sense of history, richness and majesty. They usually have some rare paintings, some jeweled pieces, statues and other artifacts as well as crypts. We didn’t take a guided tour but we did look around. You could pay to go up to the towers, into the treasury and something else but we pushed on. We stopped at the gift shop just outside the doors. Sometimes I think of Jesus with the mongers in the temple and how he turned over the tables. It doesn’t feel quite right but I stopped anyway. Outside we headed under the moors clock and began our walk. There were more shops and we tried not to go into every one. It is hard. There are glass shops, leather shops, stationary shops, jewelry shops….. you get the point. Anyway trying to follow the path we zigged and zagged and ended up at the first couple of stops. The Santa Maria Famosas Church, we made it to that, but after that I tried to find our way with very little luck. We had like three maps and the guide directions and we were hopeless. We wandered down more residential streets and saw some beautiful gated courtyards and a quieter Venitian life. It was beautiful. We found a church but not the right one and decided to abandon ship and take the water bus and do the grand canal ride. We took the long bus around. We went out to the cemetery island and then around Murano where they make the glass and then back to the main group of islands. Once we go to the place where we would catch the bus down the canal it was after 1pm and we were getting hungry. We walked a bit and found a café like restaurant. We wanted something light so we ordered what we thought was a personal pizza and spaghetti Bolognese. They turned out to be quite large so we decided we would probably have a light dinner and dove in. The pizza we chose from the menu. It had sauce mozzarella, fresh mozzarella, basil and anchovies on half ( we decided we would try it but couldn’t commit since we were sure we would like it). The pizza was unbelievably good. The anchovies were salty and a bit strange. It was a little weird having fishy pizza but overall it was good and you have to try new things. The fresh mozzarella was amazing it looked more like sour cream on the pizza and gave it an lighter taste, but truly exceptional. The spaghetti was very good. It wasn’t like the states, it was more like the one that I make.
We then got on the canal bus. I bought a map that said would explain the sights, with that and the guidebook we started our journey. It really wasn’t much information even all put together but it really is incredible the old palaces on the water. They come in all different colors and most of them are now museums and hotels but some are still private residences. We went almost to the end and then got off the stop before the end. Our hotel happened to be the last stop in the grand canal which was convenient. We had to see one more church. The church was nice and the view across the canal was unbelievable. We also went to the point on the island and looked out across the water it was almost sunset.
After getting back on the boat and crossing the canal we got off and headed back to the hotel to get on warmer clothes and relax a bit. Mom wanted to keep going so we hit the road again. We had to shop some more. We headed down the same route from the morning. We stopped at many places. We found a little bar/gelato store and had the local beverages which are Proseco which is a sparkling wine and a spritz. I have no idea what’s in it, they said proseco, soda water, and aperetivo and an orange wedge. It tastes kinda fake orangy at first then you keep drinking and it goes down nice. We then headed out again. We were looking for a coffee bar or wine bar for a snack but weren’t having much luck. So we kept moving. We had to stop for gelato. I had lemone and pistachio. Mom got strawberry and tiramisu. I liked mine the limone was intense and the pistachio was to die for. Mom liked the tiramisu but could have done away with the strawberry. We were still on the hunt for coffee and were now vowing not to shop more. We wandered around for a while then briefly turned on data roaming to access the internet to find our way home. Still no coffee we stopped at the restaurant by the hotel and asked for coffee. They were offended and sent us to the back of the restaurant where we sat down. Then they told us to move again that table was for dinner only. We finally got sat and waited on. They were not happy. We got dessert again to try to appease the angry waiters and coffee, finally. Mom’s was really good. She had ameretto meringue. Which is what I wanted but since she ordered first I had an apple tart. They were both delicious but moms was to die for. I made the mistake of asking for the check and the waitress got offended and started talking about me to the other waiters. In the end I really didn’t care I got what I wanted which was coffee and left them an extra tip just out of spite. Here your tip is included on your bill, they act as if you were to try and tip them that they are offended. I’ve also tried tipping for bag storage at the hotel with the same result. It’s very different. Anyway we retired to our rooms where we tried to once again fit everything into our bags so we can take another trip. We are all packed and ready for our trip to Florence tomorrow. Oh 5:30 don’t come too early : )