Stranded due to volcano

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Geo: 45.4345, 12.3384

This should have been the day we were due to fly home but no flights thanks to the ash cloud. The hotel we were in doubled their prices and they werent too friendly so we checked out and moved only 50 yards down the street to the Hotel San Moise which was 2 star at 100 euros per night for a double b&b and was on a side canal. The rooms were very Venetian with red walls and heavy drapes but we preferred it to the previous hotel. Meanwhile lots of phone calls were being made to rebook flights and try and find alternative routes home. All the alternatives were either extremely tedious with lots of changes or very expensive so we decided to sit it out and see what came up.
The next mission was to find a shop we had seen which sold the prettiest bottle stoppers. We did find it and bought several. Lunch was back at the Al Vechio portal as it was the friendliest and had the best food and the best value. After lunch we wanted coffees but there was no sun on the restaurant so we walked to a bar on the lagoon and had drinks in the sun and sat for as long as we could. This was followed by yet more walking and for the evening we bought wine and sandwiches and had a feast in our room.
The following day the hotel said they were able to put us up for another night at the same rate so we gratefully accepted as we still didnt know how long this would go on for. Just over the bridge to San Moise square there is a little side street going to the Biennale Foundation and which opens onto the Grand Canal. The gondoliers meet here before going off in their gondolas and there is a bar with comfortable chairs outside in a little suntrap. This was a great place to sit and read our books so we made the beers last and also enjoyed the activity on the Canal.
Later we walked to the Rialto, across the bridge and discovered La Rivetta on San Polo which did excellent fish soup. The spaghetti carbonara however was disappointing.
After lunch we visited our favourite church which is Santa Maria dei Frari. They now charge 2 euros to get in but it contains a stunning Assumption of the Virgin by Titian and a gorgeous painting by Bellini and several other lovely works. From there we walked to the Accademia and caught a boat back to San Marco as our feet were very tired.
In the evening the hotel recommended a restaurant and booked it for us. It was the Osteria Doge Morosini near San Stefano where the mushroom soup is a meal in itself and we couldnt eat all of the fish antipasta dish which we had after- one or the other would have done and the fish antipasta easily feeds 3.
After dinner we were walking through the square and saw a brightly lit shop front which looked somewhat out of place. Once we got close we realised it was a gay shop with a notice saying "open sometimes". We never saw it open on the couple of occasions we passed.
On Tuesday the 20th April, we moved out of the San Moise to the Monaco which is a 4 star hotel on the Canal. Our travel company were going to pick up the bill for bed and breakfast and give us an amount towards dinner which had to be spent in the hotel. It is a lovely hotel where we had 3 breakfasts on the terrace overlooking the canal and 3 dinners in the restaurant which was excellent.
It is next door to the famous Harry's bar which we went into but walked out again as it is not an interesting bar and the prices were sky high.
The unexpected extended stay allowed us to visit the art gallery of the Accademia which was free entry for the week. It is a large gallery but contains some great renaissance art. We also discovered Osteria a la Campana for lunch. It doesnt have a menu as it does 3 dishes of the day. We chose the delicious Penne Matriciana with salads washed down with 2 jugs of house wine. All good and totalled 46 euros for 4.
Another place I hadnt visited before is the Benovo spiral staircase which is down odd side streets and difficult to find. The morning market at the Rialto is also interesting to visit. I love Italian fish stalls everything looks so fresh. As a lot of people had left Venice and no one was coming in, there were no queues at St.Marks so we went straight in. I had forgotten how beautiful the golden mosaics were.
All too soon the European skies reopened and we had to come home- probably the only people who were glad to be delayed!

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