Saturday 2 June, my birthday

The horses outside San Marco were copies

We had a few disagreements which spoilt the day a bit. Mainly due to my stupidity in speaking Spanish instead of Italian or something silly like that. Anyway I had three birthday cards, from Laura, Rowena and Richard. Didn't hear from Matthew and Sarah, but later discovered there was no phone signal in the hotel. Breakfast was very nice - a buffet with cereal, yogurt, coffee, orange juice, a hard boiled egg, bread rolls and apricot jam. The weather was still warm but overcast, fine for sightseeing.We took the no. 2 to San Marco, and discovered a band parade in the Piazza San Marco.

The view over Piazza San Marco

We queued for the Basilica and Richard took his rucksack to the storage room. Inside it was quite gloomy and we didn't pay extra to see the Treasury but we did pay 3 euros to go behind the altar and see the other paintings etc. Then we climbed up the very steep steps to the loggia and museum. Outside we saw the horses which are copies, and got a closer view of the facade and the Doge's Palace. In the museum we saw the original horses which had been restored; they were looted from Constantinople. It was interesting.

Rialto bridge

Then we took vaporetto 2 to Rialto. There was no market because of the bank holiday so there wasn't much to see in that area. I was disappointed. We found a small cafe for lunch outside. I had spaghetti with garlic, oil and chilli. We took the boat back and I had a message from Laura. There was no signal in the hotel so I went to the cafe nearby to ring her. She told us she would be going to Tokyo on Tuesday. Very exciting! I also had birthday messages from Matthew, Sarah and Francesca.

Then we visited the nearby Accademia and saw Giorgione's Tempest and Bellini's altarpiece with St. Sebastian, and Titian's Pieta, unfinished. Veronese's Supper in the House of Levi was covered for restoration, plus many other exquisite religions paintings.

Later on we strolled along to S.M. della Salute. The church was closed but we did see a statue of a nude boy holding a frog that seemed to excite a lot of interest, so it had its own guard. At 7.30 we went out again to Avogario for dinner. It was about 10 minutes' walk past Zattere and down a small street. We sat on the outside terrace. We opted for the tasting menu: 10 courses: 1. Involtini, 2. Parmigiana, 3. Raw fish, 4. Lemon pasta, 5. Ravioloni with sea bass, 6. Brasciolo, beef roll, 7. Tuna tagliata, 8. Parfait, 9. Ricotta, 10. Chocolate cake. They served all the 3 desserts on one plate and we had a glass of Puglian SB and also Valpolicella with the meal. It was very nice, although not quite haute cuisine.

We noticed the water level was rising on the walk back.