Venice; Sunday, 28 September, 2008
I had been warned that the queues for some of the key attractions in Venice, The Cathedral, its bell tower and the Doga’s palace could be very long. As the Cathedral was closed for some reason (what a church thinks it was doing being closed to tourist on a Sunday Morning, what does it think it is, a religious establishment?), I was expecting the queues for the other main attractions to be even longer.
In the end the queue for the Bell Tower was only about 10 minutes long. Having taken in the views from the top of the bell tower I headed over to the Doga’s palace, and once again the queue was only about 10 minutes long.
Having looked around the palace I was going to quickly hop on a Vaporetto over to the neighbouring island of San Giorgio Maggiore, however, as I managed to get a particularly good seat at the very front of the boat, in the sun, I decided to stay on and use the Vaporetto as a sightseeing tour, which is what I think the majority of my fellow passengers were doing. The boat goes on a route round the back of the main island, up through the cruise ship docks and round under the bridge linking Venice to the main island before coming back down the length of the Grand Canal to the Vaporetto stop just before St Mark’s square. From there it was a short hop on another Vaporetto back to where I had started from just over an hour before and a return to my original plan and over to San Giorgio Maggiore.
When I got there I found that the church was still closed for a two hour lunch (lucky I had gone on that sightseeing diversion as I would otherwise have had a very long wait!) I popped to a nearby café for a late lunch before heading back to the church just as it reopened. The main reason for visiting was to go up the church’s bell tower. From here the views are as stunning as they are from St Marks, with the added benefit of getting the full view of St Marks square with the Cathedral and Bell tower together (a sight that is impossible when you are standing within St Mark’s bell tower!)
Having taken in the views I hopped back on the ferry over to St Marks square and then went for a ride on the ferry through the Northern part of the Lagoon (and in the process awaking some childhood memories of family holidays to the region – see the blog!) round to Burano and then onto the cathedral at Torcello.
Having taken in Torcello, and an hours stop and wander through Burano I caught the Vaparetto back towards the centre of Venice, stopping briefly to have a look at the lighthouse at Murano before arriving back at Fondamente Nova. From here I had a wander through the alleyways and canal paths of the city until, without really intending to, landing up by the restaurants just down from St Marks Square, and from where I had caught the ferry some five hours earlier.
As it was now starting to get quite late I stopped for a good dinner, before finally catching the Vaporetto back to the hotel and a good nights rest.
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