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Published: June 14th 2017
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Geo: 45.4357, 12.337
After we stayed up so late last night, a late start was in order - don't think anyone moved until the bells tolled 9am!
We had breakfast as we walked - marmalata croissants, cioccolatte croissants and panini with cheese and ham! Then into St Marks Square, for the free wifi to ring our family - and to give Matt another chance to catch his pet pigeon (he is getting closer!)
We then walked towards the traghetto (which is a local gondola across the Grand Canal) at S Maria del Giglio - dropping in at the church and accidentally seeing a Reubens and a Tintoretto - nice to tick off a masterpiece or two before lunch! When we got to the traghetto stop, we found that they were not operating because it is a public holiday. Sooooo.....
.......we took a gondola ride!!! The sun was shining, and the water was blue green, as we cruised from S. Maria del Giglio, down the Rio del Albero, to Via del Barcaroll, rio del Fuseri, to the intersection with Rio de San Salvedore - it is on this intersection that our apartment is located, and it was such an unintended thrill to pass beneath our apartment
windows! We then came out near the Rialto Bridge, seeing the Palazzo Balbi which was Napoleon's home in Venice at the top of the curve of the Grand Canal. Lots of the most important palazzos were built in this part of the Grand Canal - the markets were all around the Rialto Bridge, and once the Rialto was built, large ships could go no further down the Canal, so had to turn here.
We went in again at Rio de San Luca, where we passed Campo Manin with its statue of Daniel Manin, husband of Teresa Perissinotto and the last ruler of Venice in the mid 1800s. We then went down the Rio d. Verona, past the opera house, La Fenice, where the musicians were gathering for the afternoon performance of La Traviata. At some point, we also passed a palazzo where the 15 yo Mozart gave a recital. We came out again onto the Grand Canal, and were (at our request) taken across to S. Maria della Saluti - an enormous white domed church at the tip of the Dorsoduro part of Venice, which was built to give thanks for the end of the plague which killed 1/3 of
the population in 1630.
Again, we are lucky tourists. We wandered into the church and had time to look around before realising that the man shaking the large bunch of keys was announcing closing time. Perfect - it was meant to close at 12, we arrived at 12.05 and luckily for us, he was closing with Italian precision at 12.23! We then walked up to the Punte Dogana for the stunning view back to St Marks and the Doges Palace, and then, after a picnic lunch with a view of the Accademia Bridge, we wandered across the Accademia and back to St Marks.
Everyone was tired after the late night, so we took a nap...the advantage of this is that we can stay up late with the kids, the disadvantage is that we missed the sunset hour, where the Doges Palace glows...because that is at about 4pm here at the moment. Tomorrow (our last day in Venice) is forecast to be overcast...
When we woke, we did a little souvenir shopping, then went to tick off something on Tom's "to-do" list - a dinner of two plates! (My growing boy!!). We found a nice restaurant a couple of doors away, and
had (for G, T and S) lasagna followed by pork fillet, a seafood risotto and fried mixed fish and veges (for K - the risotto was AMAZING!) and a salami pizza for the small one. Some more walking through the narrow deserted streets after dinner, so that we could fit in a gelati!
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