Day 1.
Late(ish) flight for us this time, usually we are in the bar before breakfast when we are away for the weekend, but this time it was a far more socialable time of 17:30 flight.
We did have a slight issue getting an airbnb, as quite a few of them only allowed to check in up to about 21:00, which was too early for us.
Airport was reasonably quiet, only about 10 mins to get through check your bag lanes, then on to the bar – as always, not great, expensive, but what else ya gonna do?
Flight was late, and no food on the flight either, which was very annoying, but I watched the majority of “The Beekeeper” (not great) and before we knew it we were heading into Marco Polo.
Pretty sure passport control was okay, nothing too terrible, and as we only had hand baggage we hunted down counter 71 to get our water taxi.
I had only booked it the day before, as I was going to just take the wheeled bus, but coming into Venice its nice to go by water – I had inadvertently booked a “shared” taxi, which was no problem, just four other people on it, and we were first stop at Crea. Really nice way to come in, even though it was dark, and about 3x more expensive than on land, we landed within 20 meters of our airbnb.
Whatsappd our landlords for the next three days, and soon a slightly older gentleman came, who didn’t seem to speak a word of English other than “Andrew”, showed us around by pointing at things and saying an Italian word. It was a little like being in a childrens “learn to speak Italian” programme. Anyway, we worked it out, took the keys, then head off down the canal for a quick explore.
Had a walk down the main street from our place, Rio Tera S. Leonardo, to see what we could see – and not a lot, other than a lot of water and bridges. It was dark and we were a bit tired, and we got the initial lay of the land – the weather was great for March, and we decided on some pizza (fantastic) and a kebab (not fantastic) then a big snooze.
Day 2.
Up pretty early, and a quick walk around to find the supermarket to pick up some provisions, I was told off by the cashier for not “weighing my bread”, and we came home for a tasty breakfast of bread, ham and cheese – how very European.
We had booked on the “free” walking tour at 11, so we headed off down the same street and had a little drink in a corner caff waiting for it to start. The free tour is actually nothing like free, one has to pay a 3 euro booking fee per person, then the first thing she told us was that we pay “what we think is right” at the end, with a reminder that apparently a real tour costs 30 euro a person.., We walked around, saw a few things, then paid.
We then meandered around looking for a drink and lunch and ended up near Rialto bridge, which was packed, so we retraced our steps to the hospital square for our first real beverage and lunch. I had a big beer, which was infact pretty damn big, at 1 litre, and had a pizza that was specifically marked as having no tomato – quel surpise when it had tomato on it!
We walked around a bit, and made our way to the “bookshop” – ohhh wow. It’s a bookshop, with a load of foreign books, some of them in wooden boats, and it’s a “tourist” attraction! How silly.
Then St Marks, viewed Bridge of Sighs, saw the massive (tiny) park, walked back to Rialto, crossed the bridge then meandered through the “middle” portion of Venice and found a little square to have a beverage and cold cuts…
After we came back over the river, we headed to a little place near us, and had a pretty okay meal…
Day 3.
I have had a bad calf for about three weeks, but decided to get Venice on the Strava, so as we knew we were getting the bus at 9:30 I skipped off for a quick run around – that’s nice. Early morning, hardly anyone about – in fact I think one person on Rialto, I sort of followed the route we did yesterday, and managed four miles or so before back and showered ready for some island hopping..
Got the WaterBus from Crea, I think it was 25 euro each for the whole day – then Kate directed us to the right bus, and after a quick stop, we found ourselves on Murano.
Relatively quiet when we got there, so we walked up the canal side past the many many “glass shops” – in one window it said something like – all our glass is made here and not in China!
Walked around most of the main streets, then stopped for a refreshing beverage whilst Kate went off to buy some glass stuff – quite nice right by the big canal. After deciding not to have lunch there, we set off for somewhere, the place I wanted to go to, was shut – so we went down by the boat pickup for a massive pizza and massive beer.
Straight on the boat for the final island – quite a long ride this one, but we sat at the back in the wind, as wasn’t too bad – Burano is the one that you see in the pictures with the different coloured houses – pretty nice, but of cource full of folk trying to take pictures of the crowds trying to take pictures of the coloured houses.
Had a beer here, waiting for the boat back, then a pretty long sail back home.
Once we got back we almost when to the apparently not ironically named “Very Good” restaurant, but a saleman persuaded us to go to Agli Archi next door, as they had a nice inside place, and it was getting pretty chilly…
Good meal.
Back home to the bnb and a relatively early night.
Day 4.
Hometime, last days are always a problem for me, just cannot relax – but we found a great place to lock our bags away for a few hours, then had another walk through the town down to the South, crossing the Grand Canal we made our way back on the “west” side of Venice, which was very nice. A lot quieter, but nice squares and seems a bit for relaxed.
I think if we ever visit again, we’ll be standing more time here.
Time was a ticking so we collected our bags, walked over to the bus station, and found the right place to get the ATVO tickets, which had no queue (whereas the “main” ticket office was packed) – and luckily the bus was leaving in 5 mins… 20 mins later, we were at the airport and whipping through security.
A few things after security, so we grabbed some more bread and melted cheese and waiting for our plane. It was late, and I finally discovered that my tooth had cracked.
Flight over, easy drive back, and home by 18:00.
That was Venice – nice place, doesn’t smell, although we might have been lucky with the weather March is a great time to visit.