September 4, 2024- from the itinerary: Early wake up call to see the sun rise over Venice from Punta della Dogana. Return via San Mark’s Square and find our lunch spot before return to the hotel. Evening tour of thenDoge’s Palace.
Weather: sunny and hot, around 86 degrees
Total walking 12.5 miles
As mentioned above, we started with a walk through the city in order to make the sun rise which was estimated for 6:35. Somehow this turned into a walking race across the quiet city
To get to the sunrise on time
After we were successful in this mission, we took some time for some other fun early morning shots
On the way to St Mark’s Square
The rest of the gals were going to have a night tour of the palace/cathedral and wanted to find the pick up point, so we took this opportunity to get a good look at the Square before the tourists came.
It was fun to get a shot early and a shot at 6pm. Not as many people as used to be- even when busy
When Vena was young (5?) her family came to Venice and she was told off for playing on the lions. She took this opportunity to get her own back:)
The weather was beautiful and the temperature still reasonable, so we stayed a bit later and got some other shots of the Square early in the morning
On the way we back we found our chosen lunch place and stopped for a coffee. At the hotel had a break with some sandwiches and more coffee. It seemed like the day should be half over, but it was only 9:30 and we had already walked over 5 miles.
At noon it was time for round two and lunch. By this time the humidity, temperature and crowds were increased by quite a bit. We ended up having two lunches.
Lunch number 1 at our chosen place recommended by Jen from TMB turned out to be very crowded and was cicchetti, so the local version of tapas. We decided that wasn’t for us and Lisa, Vena, I ended up at another similar place, just to try the ciccetti. I ended up having one truffle, one asparagus and a shrimp. After all, we are in Venice and have to sample all the local items.
Lunch number 2 was at a local sit down place I chose at random on the map which was roughly on the way back to the hotel. I ended up having gnocchi which was again too oily. Next time I will get recommendations or have another in the group order for me:(
Back to the hotel for a rest, but then Vena and I found that curiousity and FOMO meant we had to go in the blazing heat/humidity/crowds back to the antique store in the Jewish Quarter and have a look. Out we went again and ended up with our curiosity satisfied, but without really finding anything interesting.
At 5pm it was back to St Marks square for the tour for the others and for me, for a walk around the Square windows shopping at beautiful jewelry.
I took my time walking back through the narrow passages and found a hole in the wall selling slices of pizza - this time deep dish - with sliced mozzarella. Further on I found a place selling prezels which looked amazing, so had one with caraway seeds. Then it was time for desert and found another hole-in-the-wall which I thought was a patisserie, but turned out to be a bar. I ended up with a cookie and a lemoncello spritzer (no Bellini’s available).
That was a long day for me, so back to end the day. I found the below in my photo feed which is the photo I think best represents how wonderful it is to be in Venice with my good friends!
(This taken yesterday from the view top (l-r: Kim, Ann, Lisa, Vena)
Σχόλια