Venice
Friday 31st January – Sunday 2nd February
Day 1
Having checked and double checked that we had everything we set off to Gatwick for our first foreign adventure of 2020…halfway to the airport Steve realised while he’d remembered to bring his coat and hat to mine he ‘d left them there! Oh well not to worry, just as well he’d packed another one and who needs a waterproof coat in Venice, in January, anyway?
Through security and we did a spot of hat shopping to replace the missing hat, after getting a very nice one in Fatface and going to put it in the bag…hey presto the missing hat appeared and then there were two! Always nice to have a choice. A bite to eat and a drink, Dave Dooda browsed the free wifi for a bit and then we boarded for an uneventful flight.
We were greeted at the airport by a man with a sign for “Mr/Mrs Haskey” and taken straight to a taxi. A short drive, a spot of parking Italian style and we were ready to board our own private water taxi. Inside it was a bit like a limo on water but we spent most of the ride standing up front in the fresh air enjoying the evening ride.
We got off the boat and walked to the hotel, thankfully it was basically a straight line up one street and finding the right turning down to the hotel! We checked in only to be told that there was a WW2 bomb investigation on Sunday so all access in and out would be stopped at 7am but hopefully normality would resume before we had to leave!
We dropped our bags off in the room, Steve tripped over the step, and then we headed out for an explore and some food. Steak for Vikki and Steve was very excited to spot that spaghetti al vongole is a real Italian dish so ordered that…This was where the discovery of Italian food began…with a very literal meal. A plate with literally just a steak and a wedge of lemon for Vikki (and a bowl of tomatoes) and a bowl of spaghetti and clams for Steve, no sauce just spaghetti and clams!
Thinking that pudding would be the winner, when in Italy order gelato…turns out the assorted ice cream was an assortment of two – vanilla and lemon and the truffle turned out to just be chocolate ice cream!
A little explore round the maze of streets, which felt a little like being in a computer game, and we found St Marks Square, which was very impressive, and then it was back to the hotel.
(evening photos of St Marks Square to go in here)
The night ended with a hunt for the bathroom light switch which wasn’t really that hard to spot after all…
Day 2
To say that the Venetian breakfast was disappointing is an understatement! Cold bacon and eggs for Steve, fruit salad and yoghurt for Vikki and then we headed back up to the room for a coffee on our balcony. We had a room with a view…if you craned your neck round the corner we had a lovely view of the top of the Campanile bell tower in St Marks square. However in reality if you didn’t crane your neck you got a lovely view of a brick wall!
First stop of the day was a gondola ride, it was nice and quiet so seemed like the best time to go. A quick pit stop mid way through for a cash point (Steve couldn’t open the door!) and then we were on our way. The gondolier was very nice and gave us a lot of information, we went through a lot of the small canals and came out onto the Grand Canal where we saw lots of sights including the Rialto Bridge, Marco Polo’s house and a 7 star hotel which quite frankly we we should have been staying in!
Highlight of the gondola ride had to be seeing just how embarrassed Steve got when singing “Just one cornetto” basically to the gondolier!!!
We headed to St Marks Square which was even more impressive in daylight, especially the San Marco Campanile Bell Tower. We queued to go to the top, thinking we were going to be climbing a lot of stairs only to discover we got whisked up in a lift! The views were amazing and there were some ginormous bells above us, which we decided were definitely no longer active.
We just missed an elevator back down so were at the front of the queue waiting when a staff member warned us that in 30seconds the bell above us would ring!
Turns out they ring twice a day (noon and midnight) so the chances of us being up there when it rang were slim, never mind the chances of us being stuck literally under it when it rang! Loud is an understatement and no idea how long it rang for but it was definitely more than 12 times!
With our ears ringing slightly we decided it was time for lunch, Steve found a highly recommended place on Trip Advisor so the hunt in the maze of streets began, after a lot of wandering we found it…boarded up and closed! So we ate at the non boarded up and open place next door, which turned out to be very nice. Although shame we didn’t know the Italian bread eating etiquette.
After lunch we decided to go and look for Richard Madeley’s favourite gelato place for pudding, because…well…why not!. Again, we wandered the maze of streets and again we wandered a lot, google maps really does not like the narrow streets and tall buildings of Venice!
En route to finding the ice cream place we discovered that Venetian shop owners aren’t too keen on people dropping their merchandise or suggesting that instead of being pushed into buying something we might come back later.
One not quite right Pinocchio puppet, one very embarrassed Vikki and one angry Italian man later we continued the hunt for the gelato shop.
After thinking we’d found it and like the lunch restaurant it was boarded up and closed we eventually did find the right place, open and full of ice cream. Chocolate for Vikki and hazelnut for Steve. Steve nearly choked on his after Vikki pointed out his balls were going to fall off (the hazelnuts, obviously!).
Next, was a spot of shopping, including browsing a chocolate shop which offered half of their produce as free samples…the chocolate coffee beans were delicious, the limoncello sweet not so much! Lots of beautiful glass ornaments, crazy masks, cakes and chocolates to be seen.
Steve bought an amazing Venetian mask and Vikki got a free little magnet mask from the salesman (a much nicer one than angry Pinocchio man!).
A quick stop to drop off the shopping at the hotel and then we headed to investigate a trip to one of the other islands. After a very confusing conversation with the ticket lady, and causing a huge queue to build behind us, we got tickets to head to Lido on the Vaporetto.
A windy and cold 20min boat ride took us to the island of Lido – whilst on the boat we did a little research to discover Lido “is a summer island and has nothing to offer in winter”…oh well it’s all an adventure!
Lido was very different to Venice, there were normal streets and cars for a start. We went for a bit of a walk and Vikki got attacked by a tree, randomly dropping something on her head. We did wonder if someone was throwing things from a great height but came to the conclusion it must have been a tree.
While enjoying coffee and cake in a lovely cafe, trying to decide where to go next an old Italian man listened in and interrupted telling us how we must walk to the airport on the island. He gave us directions and we headed off. We didn’t want to go to the airport but found ourselves walking in the wrong direction of where we wanted to go because the old man was watching out the window!
Once out of his sight we diverted and headed to Bluemoon beach, which is actually where we had planned to go. We found it after a short walk and..well…it’s safe to say it’s not the finest beach we’ve been to and it certainly isn’t a winter tourist attraction! The fact it started raining at that point just emphasised it – if only Steve had a waterproof coat…
With no idea of boat times, or how regular, or not, they were we headed back in the hope of catching a boat back to Venice. Thankfully we arrived just as one was leaving as we then worked out there was only one per hour!
After a frustrating search for what appeared to be a non existent restaurant we found somewhere different for dinner (there seemed to be a pattern forming here!!). In Venice, risotto appeared to be a dish for two so we thought we would go for it.
First we got told off for wanting to have a starter at the same time as our main (to add parma ham into Prosecco risotto) so we had a plate of ham to start, with a side consisting of a pickled onion, part of a carrot and something we didn’t recognise. Followed by what can only be described as a plate of rice. Not even tasty, flavoursome rice, just a plate of slightly sweet rice and that was it!
We did however have a scrummy pudding of freshly made crepes after escaping the restaurant – which also doubled as a very effective hand warmer. We headed back towards the hotel (confident we were going the right way, thanks to the landmark glove!) and finished off the day the only way we could…by re-enacting the moment James Bond drove his hovercraft gondola out of the water and through St Marks Square.
And what better way to finish off a fantastic, fun filled day than with beer and Prosecco in bed.
Oh and who knew how lazy teeth brushing could be…
Day 3
The breakfast didn’t get any better the second morning but we did discover we could get cappuccinos instead of filter coffee so it was a slight improvement! We got all packed up, checked out, left our bags at the hotel to collect later and headed off to make the most of our last day.
Due to the WW2 bomb investigation the whole place was very quiet, the skies were blue and it was quite mild so we made the most of it enjoying a walk in the sun along the Grand Canal and up onto Rialto Bridge.
We decided to search for the narrowest street in Venice, so headed off taking many detours and reaching many dead ends. Part way there we stopped at a lovely little place for lunch, where we actually got some proper, flavoursome, food along with his and hers bottles of beer and wine!
After lunch, a few more dead ends and wrong turnings and we found it, and narrow it certainly was, Steve only just made it down it with the rucksack on – 53cm apparently!
Next stop was some earring bartering on Railto bridge which resulted in a decent discount and a pair of diamond studs for Vikki, followed by mint choc gelato (because there’s no way we could go home without having some of that).
Last walk around the crazy little streets and we stopped for a coffee getting some free entertainment as a group of people were filming the most bizarre thing involving weird outfits, dodgy dancing and throwing sweets in the air and at each other!
Content that we had seen and done everything we wanted to we headed to the airport by boat, Vikki had a snooze and Steve slowly but surely opened the window, waiting for an angry Italian to tell him off!
Venice airport was very oddly set out and seemed to be in a big circle! After walking round it a couple of times we discovered a food court upstairs, had some rather plain pasta and then discovered a burger place on the way back down – oh well it’s not like we needed some decent food with flavour…
The airport had a persistent doorbell, terrible signage and a rather helpless help point but the flight was on time and we made it home safe and sound, albeit a tad exhausted!
A very busy but fun weekend, a fantastic first adventure of the year.
