The Well-Fed Finch

---

Our last day in Venice started like all the others with breakfast at Oceano Mare, our bed and breakfast. If you’re looking for a reasonably priced and comfortable place to stay in Venice, I highly recommend this place. We headed out to Arsenale to catch the vaporetto. As it was early on a Sunday there were fewer crowds and we got a seat out the back. So we decided to catch it all the way along the Canal Grande. The weather was absolutely perfect. The previous day’s rainstorm had blown away a lot of the fog, leaving the air cooler and the skies clearer. How perfect for our last day on which we had planned to wander around and take in Venice. After we arrived at Piazza de Roma, we hopped on another that we thought would take us back down the Canal. Instead it went out around the island, which was nice as by the time we got off near Chiesa della Sante we had been all around the island and through it as well. We walked past a few lovely shops, looking at the glass work and other arts and crafts in them as we made our way to the church. I bought some exquisite notepaper from one shop. At the church we gave money to the man at the door, who we later realised was a gypsy. Oh well. The church is beautiful and filled with paintings, including a Titian. After a little while taking in the serenity of the church we re-emerged into the bustle of Venice and caught a vaporetto across the canal to seek out the swish shopping areas. While it’s no Champs Elysee, there is one wide street with top end fashion stores and then a few smaller surround streets where more big names happen on you (like Chanel and Louis Vuitton).

The small spaces make the area rather overwhelming, so we escaped to Campo Santa Stefano for lunch. The restaurant was the best we ate at the whole time in Venice. It’s called a beccafico and only has menus in Italian, had gluten free pasta and had good serving sizes (so made me, my mum and my dad happy respectively). I had pasta with a tomato, caper and olive sauce. The pinot grigio was very yummy and we also were given bruscetta as starters (including gluten free for mum) and then sweet wine complimentary afterwards as well. A relaxing one and a half hours were spent under the umbrellas of the restaurant in the square. So we continued on with our wanderings. We caught a vaporetto out to Guidecca to check out the fabrics at Fortuny, however it was closed. It was nice to see Venice from another angle though and we had a lovely little break on the island (we also caught a finch eating someone’s leftover pasta at very nice looking restaurant). Back to San Marco and we began to wander around, through the shops up into Castello, the largest area of Venice (and where we were staying). I bought a handbag. It’s orange. We then walked across to the Rialto and caught a vaporetto back to Arsenale for a short break.

Dad stayed at the hotel as mum and I went shopping. We got a little lost which was rather serendipitous as we found a beautiful little gallery that sells original watercolours, sketches and oils of Venice. We then wandered past a mask shop where I bought a pretty blue and orange mask that I had seen a few days earlier. On our wanderings we also found a great shop run by a watercolour artist and his photographer son. Amazing little finds in amongst the cheap souvenirs that can become overwhelming. We then went to the Piazza San Marco and had drinks (mum had cioccolato and I had prosecco) at one of the cafes around the square. The view was great and we stayed there well over an hour before we went to find dinner. We managed to find our way back to a place we had seen earlier in the day selling pizza by weight - they made huge rectangular pizzas then cut off which size you wanted. We took it back to our hotel and enjoyed as we tried to plan the next part of our trip. On such a beautiful day I took as many photos as I had on the previous four days combined. It’s such a beautiful, confusing and captivating city.

In all, I really liked Venice. It is strange how a city can exist almost entirely for the purpose of tourism! It was probably a nice way to ease into the country as most service providers speak English. Although my parents attempts at pronouncing Italian never fail to amuse (and sometimes frustrate me). Everything is done around the water - water ambulances, speed cameras for boats, UPS boats for parcels, garbage boats. Even though the city is entirely canals, I kept getting surprised at all this! I was also surprised at the lack of Venetian blinds. And that a lot of gelato, even citrus flavours, is made with milk. On our last day I did find dairy-free melon gelato and that kept me very happy.

x Sarah

p.s. happy birthday to my darling sister, Rachel!

---