Venice, Italy
Sunday 24thJune 2018
We had breakfast at the hotel and then went back upstairs to pack our bags and get things sorted ready to check out. We’re getting pretty good at this. We had uploaded some walking tour photos and were all packed, ready to go by 11:00 am. The young man from the hotel helped us get our bags downstairs and we organised to store the camera and laptop bag behind the counter.
We headed over in the direction of the Rialto Bridge first as we were quite interested in this area. My sister had also suggested some restaurants that were over near there. We found the bridge – with only a little help required from Google and decided to have a drink near there. Phil ordered 2 cappuchinos for him and me. I tried it with 2 sugars and it was pretty good. We took a couple of photos and then crossed the bridge. I found a tea towel souvenir for us and kept looking at handbag shops – still no luck!
We wandered around the market area – although it was almost 12 and so most things were shut. We bought some fresh fruit from one of the fruit stalls – Phil having melon and me getting some pineapple. We then wandered around this area further. We weren’t hungry at this point, so headed back along the typical tourist route back to St Mark’s Square. We passed more handbag shops – still no luck. I had found one I liked in Longchamps – however it was 400 Euros – um no!
We found our way back to the Square but wanted to keep exploring. We wanted to get a better view of Customs House across a canal from St Mark’s. We headed down that way to see if there were some restaurants on the water, but they were all WAY out of our price range. We were clearly in the ritzy part of the city with all of the designer shops over here. Way out of our price range. I didn’t even look at the handbag shops here.
We eventually found a café that Phil was eager to try for lunch. I had cannelloni and Phil had a hamburger. Phil’s hamburger was 6 Euros and it was really plain. We found a bridge to cross the Grande Canal and found this amazing little area near the Gallerie Dell’ Academia. It was so pretty. There was hardly anybody there. Both of our guides – Marc and Elizabetta had said that the ‘tourist’ areas of Venice are really crowded, but once you step away from St Mark’s Square and the Rialto Bridge, it’s actually much quieter. We have absolutely found this to be true.
After wandering around this island, we found a ferry boat to take us back across the Canal. Back in Phil’s happy place – on the water.
We got back to San Marco’s Square and walked further along the waterfront. We found a beautiful little café looking out to the water allowing us to enjoy our last snack and final hours in Venice. We have both fallen in love with this city. Both Phil and I think we will definitely come back to Venice – with an emptier suitcase.
We got back to our room to find our porter already waiting for us 30 minutes early. We were pretty much ready, got ourselves sorted and went to the waterfront. He took us a completely different way there so we got to see more of Venice. He was calling out ‘Attencione! Attencione!” essentially moving people out of the way. We were walking very closely behind him, to keep up with him.
We bought our tickets and waited for the ferry. Now this is the way to go to an airport! We were told to allow 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport from where we got on the ferry. The ferry made a few stops along the way prior to reaching the airport. It was so beautiful and a really special way to farewell Venice.
Because we had caught the earlier ferry, we were super early when we got to the airport. We checked in and discovered that we had premium economy tickets – woo hoo – and that the plane had been delayed by 30 minutes – not whoo hooo.
We landed at Copenhagen airport at 12:45 am. There were no immigration areas to clear – at all. Initially we had thought that we were still in the European Union – but Denmark don’t use the Euro as their currency but the Danish Krona – so it’s a little unclear. Anyway, we got our bags super quickly – nothing to declare and we were out searching for the taxi line. By this time it was 1:10 am. We found the taxi line – it was enormous! We were so worried it was going to take an hour to get to the front of the line. Fear not! There was a gentleman there organising cabs and we made it to the front of the line in about 15 minutes. We got to the hotel, checked in and were in our room at 2:10 am. Quick shower and to bed. Breakfast at 9am with Kim.
Bel and Phil's Adventures 
Leave a Reply