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| Approaching Venice by boat - weather overcast |
Up at 5am and took a taxi to the airport at 6. By 6.55 we were relaxing in the sports bar, then went shopping for perfume and body lotion. Arrived in Venice in just over an hour, weather muggy. We had tickets for the
Alilaguna ferry to San Marco which called at Murano, past San Michele and the cemetery island, round the lagoon via Lido, Giudecca and arrived at
San Marco an hour and a half later.
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| There's melon under all that ham |
We dragged our bags to the vaporetto line number 2 stop to Accademia. Very crowded. There we used the Raitour Suisse map which led us astray. Eventually a local lady pointed us to our hotel, Ca'Pisano, in a former
palazzo. Our room wasn't ready so we walked over
Accademia Bridge to Campo San Stephano and had lunch at
A Becca Fico: I had
prosciutto crudo with melon and pasta with swordfish and aubergine, which was very tasty. We had some
Collarini Sauvignon Blanc Fumet 2011, which was very nice. It looks like my 'no wine' resolve will be challenged on this holiday!
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| Strolling round the canals |
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| Creme Catalan nicely decorated |
Then we retraced our steps to the hotel and found a nice room waiting. Slept for ages. It was very warm. In the evening we went out to visit
St. Mark's Square using vaporetto 1 this time (it stops at every stop). We strolled around the square and had a drink at one of the cafes there, which had a music surcharge. Nice but possibly not worth 6 euros each.
For dinner we went back to Dorsoduro, our part of Venice, and at dinner at
Agli Alboretti in the garden. I had
branzino or sea bass and we had some local
Lugana white wine, with a lemony taste. First they gave us a seafood risotto, which was probably not a good idea for me. Richard had pasta with beans. The fish was garnished with shellfish which I left, plus olives and tomatoes, strips of vegetables and a nice sauce. Afterwards I was tempted to a
crema catalana which was more like a
creme brulee but nice anyway.
Then we strolled down to the canal on the other side at Zattere, which was very atmospheric. We went back to our hotel for a coffee in the bar, and then to the room. There were a few problems with the so-called design hotel - obviously the design wasn't tested by a woman. Plus we could only get BBC World on TV.
