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Published: June 21st 2017
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Amazing Floor Tiles inside Palazza Ducale
Floor Tiles Inside Palazzo Ducale on Secret Itineraries Tour 06-10-14 Geo: 45.4371, 12.3327
Today was our 30th Wedding
Anniversary – the purpose of our trip to Italy.
We started with a delicious breakfast at the Londra Palace. The weather was nice enough to sit outside an people watch, there was a never ending parade of people going back and forth along the Riva. We found the tour groups the most fascinating, watching people rushing to keep up with the tour guide. Again it confirmed that that is not a style of holiday that would suit us.
After breakfast we headed to the Doges Palace for our Secret Itineraries Tour that we had booked from Australia before we left. I booked it primarily for G, but found it to be totally fascinating. Would highly recommend this tour to anyone visiting Venice. It lasted for around 90 minutes and afterwards we had free time to wander the palace at will.
We then had timed tickets to the Basilica. So glad that we booked these – the queues were ridiculously long as by now it was 11:45am and the lights were on inside to highlight the mosaics. There was also a lot of water on the ground, which I guess was aqua alta as there had been no rain.
Ceiling Inside Palazzo Ducale
Inside Palazzo Ducale on Secret Itineraries Tour 06-10-14 They had the raised walkways up throughout St Mark's Square.
The Basilica was beautiful, particularly all lit up. We paid a small amount extra (around €5 from memory) to be able to climb up and get a much closer view of the mosaics, as well as go out on a balcony which gave amazing views of the piazza.
After leaving St Marks, we caught a Vaporetto to the San Basilio stop and spent some time simply wandering around the Dorsoduro area. We ended up in Campo Santa Margherita where we stopped for a very simple lunch of pizza for G and grilled chicken for me with a glass of wine.
We then found a couple of shops selling amazing hand made venetian masks. As we had been given money to buy an anniversary gift we decided to buy one. We bought a gorgeous mask but I was slightly worried about whether it would eventually arrive at our home and what state it would be in. Luckily, it arrived bang on time about two days after we got home and it was in perfect condition. If anyone is interested in purchasing a mask, we bought ours at Atelier Marega on Fondamente dell'Osmarin in
Photo from Inside Bridge of Sighs
Inside the Bridge of Sighs on Secret Itineraries Tour 06-10-14 San Polo.
We spent the afternoon with more general wandering around, visiting the Frari Church and walking over the Rialto Bridge.
We returned to the hotel for our anniversary dinner in the hotel's Do Leoni restaurant. The meal was magnificent, and again the weather was nice enough to dine al fresco. We had Scallop and Salmon Brochette, Fillet of Beef with Crunchy Fried Leeks on a bed of black daikon radish and the most delicious Vanilla Souffle. Once we had finished dinner and our wine, we wandered back to Piazza San Marco and had coffee and liqueurs at Caffe Lavena. This was great fun, the orchestra was great and managed to include the audience in the show. We loved it. What a fantastic anniversary day.
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