Venice, day 2-3

From Venice

Our exploration of the streets and canals of Venice is now nearly over. I think we have done reasonably well to take in a representative cross-section of what the city has to offer, including some of the standard tourist sights such as the Basilica St Marco, as well as a few locations that are off the beaten track. After warnings in the guide books about the poor standard of restaurant food in Venice, we were very pleasantly surprised that we managed to find excellent places to eat throughout our stay, even if they were on the expensive side.
The amount of boat travel was somewhat less than one might expect. We took a vaporetto along the Grand Canal to get to the island of San Giorgio the log way around, which gave us a chance to see the city from the water. However, we resisted the temptation to take a gondola ride and be serenaded by a tenor singing 'Just One Cornetto'. Not difficult to do at €100 for a one hour spin! Better value can be obtained by taking a tragetto ride across the Grand Canal in what is essentially a gondola, for the grand sum of €0.50!

On our final day we took the vaporetto out to the island of Murano, which is famous for its glass workshops. Just enough time for an excellent final meal followed by a visit to the glass museum, before heading on to the airport for our trip home, and just making it to the departure gate with 2 minutes to spare.