Venice 20 July

We left the hotel at 7:45 for our trip to the island of Venice. We boarded a private boat that whizzed over to the island.

 

We met up with the guide when we arrived and went firstly to the Doge’s Palace.



 

 It was a mighty interesting place and the information the guide gave us was really great. We got to walk across the Bridge of Sighs that the prisoners were walked across to the prison after their sentencing. We saw the cells that still have some of the writings of the prisoners, the most recent being from 1920.

After this some of the group went into the church to view the Byzantine architecture but as it was so hot the majority of us found a shady spot to sit. It was very hot, humid & smelly. Our next adventure took us on a gondola ride through the canals. We had a pretty grumpy Gondolier but one of the other groups had an accordion player & singer on board so that sounded lovely as we cruised along.


Canals of Venice

We were treated to a Murano Glass Blowing demonstration and then got to view some of the amazing pieces that were for sale. No photos allowed of these items though.

We were left to our own devices then & had until 3:15 to be back for the return boat trip. We walked up to the Rialto Bridge but were very disappointed as one side was under scaffolding & there was no decent vantage point to take a photo of the other side. We then went into the Correr Museum to have a look at some of the beautiful rooms & pieces.

Correr Museum

We arrived back at the hotel about 3:45 and had the rest of the day to relax before meeting for dinner at 7:30.