Venice Day 2

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Phew! A busy day today! An early start with a private boat trip to St Mark's Square and a guided walking tour including the Doges Palace with a walk over the bridge of Sighs. According to our guide, the view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells.
St Mark's Square is fascinating! At night dotted around the square are little orchestras playing. We heard a fabulous version of 'the pink panther' played as we walked by. The restaurants there have cover charges and are quite expensive so it's best to find one away from the square unless you just fancy experiencing the ambience of the square.
In the afternoon we had our gondola ride. There were four of us along with the gondolier and two musicians. We named our gondola the 'love boat' as we had cherubs decorating ours whilst the others had only horses, and we also were lucky enough to have the musicians in ours. It was a great experience being rowed along through the alleyways and streets. As we had the musicians all the tourists were taking our photos, we felt like celebritys!
In the evening we had a trip by boat to Burano Island. It was a bit of a trek. Some very swish yachts along the way, must belong to some very rich people! The island houses are all painted different bright colours. The legend says that sailors on return from long voyages could pick out their houses because of the different colours. The dinner was unusual, pasta etc, the dessert being a bowl of fruit, uncut, with a bit of ice sprinkled on top! By the time we got back we were all pooped. A very long but enjoyable day.

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