Venice, Italy: Saturday 14 May

Today we travelled from Florence to Venice by train - it was quite a good journey apart from arriving 30 mins late in to Venice (the train was on a go slow from Florence to Bologna) and Peter's order for coffee and donuts before we got on the train got lost in translation and we ended up with tuna sandwiches instead!!

We arrived in Venice at lunchtime and jumped on the vaperetto (the ferry) to the stop close to our apartment. The journey took about 25 mins and it was lovely to see the old buildings and the hustle and bustle of the Grand Canal.

Along the grand canal

Our apartment

Our apartment is very nice - just off the grand canal along a small alleyway called Calle de Paradiso. The lady checking us in told us that it was called 'the street of paradise' because it used to be paradise for the local men to meet a certain type of lady if you know what I mean - we were assured it was no longer that kind of street!

We popped out for some groceries and got a hot slice of pizza each for our lunch. Unfortunately we could not get back in to the apartment as we could not unlock the door, so in between trying to force the door down we were scoffing our pizza slices - we both agreed it was a first for us to eat pizza in a hallway but hey, we didn't want it to get cold! After numerous times trying to get in, and pizza scoffed, I called the lady who checked us in who told us there was a bit of a knack to opening the door (tell us about it!).

After unpacking and settling in, we made our way back to the boat stop as we had booked a food tour for this evening. There were 5 of us altogether on the tour, all Brits, plus our Italian guide Alessandra (who was the spitting image of Caitriona with dark hair!). For the next 4 hours she took us to 5 different places to try different foods and wines which we would have never of tried on our own! We saw some interesting places that were off the tourist trail, and it was a good group and everyone got on and had a laugh.

Views on our food tour

Some food we tried on our food tour

The weather had been glorious up until about 7pm when the clouds rolled in and there was a huge thunderstorm. It was still raging when we left and we got absolutely SOAKED on the way back - I found that my Mac was shower proof but not pouring down proof and we had to strip off when we got back.

I really like what I have seen so far of Venice so I am looking forward to getting out and having a proper look round!

 

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