Canals and Cousins

“ A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Tim Cahill

The English connection has joined us and we daytripped to Venice, with its captivating canals and beautiful bridges. Without doubt Venice takes your breath away and I think we all fell a little bit in love with this beautiful city.

Venice sits on a lagoon, and is about 400 islands linked by 118 bridges.

Of course we had to have a gondola ride, a very touristy thing to do but also something you just have to do.

Gondola trivia – all the gondolas in Venice are black, there are 443 gondoliers only two of whom are female, the canals are 2-3 metres deep. It didn’t smell.

The Bridge of Sighs, “Ponte dei sospiri”, the name is said to be because prisoners would be led across, from the prison to interrogation rooms, and would sigh as they took their last look at Bella Venezia, from the small windows in the bridge.

Everywhere you look there is a postcard moment, after our gondola ride it was off to San Marco Piazzo where the impressive basilica dominates, lunch in a little place behind the square, people watching and window shopping.

Venetian glass has been renowned for centuries and the best is hand made on the island of Murano, another Vaporetto (Venetian ferry) took us there just in time to see the factory doors close.

Deciding which stop to get off led to a Classic moment as six of us on the Vaporetto became five when Elaine, in her eagerness to explore, got off at the first stop. A priceless moment as her mouth fell open as the Vaporetto pulled away from the dock……

Time to leave Venice on the fast train back to Bologna, unfortunately arriving on the platform just in time to watch the train pull out. Next train not until after midnight. A just missed moment that turned out to be fabulous with another Vaporetto ride through the amazing Venice by night.