Day 10

Our hotel had complimentary breakfast so being cheap I ate my fill and made sure Ruth did as well. It was also a public holiday in Italy, Ferragasto, the feast of the assumption. This just meant a few shops and restaurants were shut. Ruth continued as navigator around the narrow and confusing streets of Venezia and did a great job at this. Being a city packed with galleries and churches we thought we'd indulge in a bit of culture. We walked through the Gallerie dell'Accademia, which contains the largest collection of Venetian art, was good for about an hour then we got art overload so..left, basically lots of gold leaf and religious themes. The hearty breakfast just increased our appetite so we dropped into a hole in the wall tavernetta (San Maurizio) for a feed of pasta and beverages. Our next major stop was the Piazza San Marco, housing such Ventian icons as the Basillica, Campanile, Doges Palace and thousands of camera snapping tourists queueing to get into these places. Whilst it was an impressive sight we pretty much scurried through here. Being at the other end of Venice to where we were staying we then caught the vaporetti (ferry) back through the Canal Grande for an afternoon sleep. Awakening refreshed my tour guide took me on a walk through the streets of San Polo and Santa Croce, where we discovered the Jewish Ghetto, some Murano glass jewellery and the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari a 550 year old church, so I left Ruth to it and dropped in for mass. It was the biggest and most impressive church I've ever been into and even had a tomb in there, and some massive art works (Titian, Bellini and Donatello). The mass was all in Italian too so the padre's sermon did not do much for me. I found it an unexpectedly enjoyable experience! The thing about Venice is that it is overrun by tourists and this can be a bit overwhelming but even so you can still find some peace and quiet in this place, so Ruth and I bought the best pizza we've ever eaten from our local trattiore, ducked down a side alley and found a pew on the grand canal hanging out for an hour or so. A great finish to a visit to a great city.