The Third Time Lucky Tour: Day 22

I had a plan, and today it pretty much came together perfectly.

Yesterday, we went to the station and bought our Daily Travel Passes for today. This morning we walked about 75 metres to a bus stop and boarded a 6L, a very crowded 6L. We only just squeezed on. You are supposed to validate the pass first use. No chance!

We alighted (Catherine 😉) at the bus station and caught Water Bus 2 to the Rialto Bridge stop, all as per my plan. I had to pinch myself, here I was, on the Grand Canal in Venice, in 29 degrees! It was a hot day.

The Rialto Bridge

We took some photos of the Rialto Bridge, which actually has three separate sets of steps and 2 rows of shops, either side of the central set. We then jumped back on a No.2, to take us to St Mark's. We had a look around the square and down some of the side streets, which all seem to lead to a tiny humped bridge over water, and got a picture of Dudley, with the tower in the background.

St Mark's Square

I had pre-booked tickets to go up St Mark's Bell Tower, but we still had a bit of time to kill, so we made our way round, to get some pictures of the Bridge of Sighs.

The Bridge of Sighs

Photos sorted, we made our way to the tower, jumping the rather large queue, straight to the lift. It was definitely worth pre-booking. The views from up top are fantastic, as you'd imagine and like everyone, we took a few photos. When it came time to descend, we were just at the head of the queue, when the big bloody bell, right above our heads struck! 12 noon. 12 bloody bongs would have been bad enough but for some strange reason, this bell kept going and going. Talk about ringing in your ears!

St Mark's Square from the top of the Bell Tower

When we got back to ground level, we jumped on another No.2 water bus across to the Abazzia di San Giorgio Maggiore, directly opposite the St Mark's Square but on a seperate island.. There a coffee break was taken, where Grizzly had what they described as a sandwich but was in fact a tiny roll. Having had a look in the church, we were back on the No.2. 5 stops later, we got off and made our way on foot, and over the Grand Canal, to the famous Fenice Teatro.

We paid for an audio guided tour of the theatre, as I'd heard it was something of an architectural marvel. It is every bit as beautiful as people make out, however, I think it may have looked even better if there hadn't been some guy (Irish apparently) doing a sound and lighting check for his show tonight, so the lighting in the theatre wasn't that great for photos. Shame. It was an interesting tour nonetheless and was the perfect conclusion to our day of sightseeing.

The Fenice Teatro

Fenice Teatro, Royal Box

We got a No.1 water bus back to the bus terminal and jumped on a 6L again, back to our hotel.

We ate at the same restaurant as last night. Why not, it was nice enough? And that concludes our time in Venice.

Tomorrow we shall pay a fleeting visit to Verona on our way to our overnight stop in Sirmione, on the edge of Lake Garda. In the evening , we are expecting a visit from our Italian chum Lorenzo, who lives not too far away. Unlike last year, he shouldn't have a 300km round trip to see us!

Weather still looks fine, though Grizzly thinks we may have rain by 4pm. I don't think it'll take us that long to get to Sirmione and check-in is from 2pm, so we should be out of our riding gear before any precipitation hits.

I'll leave you with a picture of what many people first associate with Venice