In Venice

It was an early start at 7am as this was our last day with the car, which we had to drop off in Venice Mestre. All was going well until Navvie sent us on detour through some narrow streets and winding roads and when we hit the Italian border Navvie started going hay wire as she was not set up for Italy only Croatia.

Anyway we made to the drop off point and our rent a car guy was waiting and that all went well and then we dragged our bags over the train station for the one stop to Venice St Lucia. We bought tickets for the Vappareto public ferry for the ride along the Grand Canal to San Marco where, as per our map, we had a short walk to our hotel, Hotel Del Campo. Our manager at the hotel was Mateus. He was very nice and helpful and later booked a restaurant for us.

The crowds were just crazy in San Marco Square and it was hot, very hot, but it was exciting and a bit smelly.

We checked in and the kids were tired and they had a nap while Ves and I went exploring. We found some great shops including and amazing mask shop and the owner let us try on the masks and take photos. 

We also found a restaurant for dinner that night. The restaurant was a bit out of the way but it also had a gluten free menu, which Ves was excited about. We booked a table in the garden at the back.  

The food was nice but my Cuttle fish venetian style, cooked in its own ink, was interesting and I have to admit a little bit hard going down.

Day 2 we decided to have our own free time, shopping and exploring and Ves and I booked a small boat tour of the Grand Canal for 4.45pm. The plan was to meet back at the hotel after that at about 6.30pm and then decide what to do for dinner and maybe even a gondola ride if we had time.

Well we ended up missing the tour because the Vaparetto took so long getting back to San Marco and we had to sprint to the meeting place and being 10minutes late they had already left. Atleast I got in some exercise and then Ves and I found a bar and had a cold drink as it was so hot and we had been running to try and catch our tour. Oh well as Ves said, if that the worst thing to happen its not too bad.  

We caught up with Jess and Dylan around 6pm and decided to go out for dinner at 7.30. They were sad to hear about us missing our tour.

We went in search of a restaurant and found one near San Marco Square. Jess and Dylan paid the bill and then we walked to the Grand Canal, took photos of the full moon and bought our Vaparetto tickets to the railway station, for the following mornings trip on the fast train to Rome.