Feelin Hot Hot Hot!

Day 2 in Venice, the temperature here today was 38 Celsius in the shade and before the humidity.  In the lagoon area of Venice, where the canals are, the main square and meeting place is St Marks Square or the Piazza San Marco. As you can see, it is huge and the place where the hundreds of boats bring all of the tourists.

So with the high temperatures, if you walk across the square, it is best to walk around the buildings where there is shade, but this is where all of the shops are located, so you have tens of thousands of people crowded everywhere.  So I suggested to Barb that we just cross in the sun, it was like walking on a huge frying pan.

Barb decided it would be important to have a hat, something she never wears, but over here you need to try to keep the sun away from you face, ears etc.  So she now has a snazzy Italian made hat and I think it looks great.

We started our day in a glass blowing factory where they showed us how they make the many items they have. This is not like your Mexican or Dominican glass figurines, here they have a complete wine glass set with decanters and serving trays, chandeliers that were unbelievable and so many other items.  We almost broke down and bought something, but decided to get out while we could. 

Next we met a local tourist guide and resident of the canal area and she took us on a walking tour away from the crowds down narrow laneways so narrow that only two people could stand side by side.  This lady was small and funny, and kept calling "you who" as we walked along to be sure we knew where she had gone.  First around this street, then left on the next street and right on the second street, etc.  She would stop to show us some of the buildings which date back to the 16 and 1700's. She gave us insight as to what it is like to live here and we came across smaller squares called campo. Many of these had only one restaurant, no shops and remarkably no or very few people.

 

 

 

After this tour which ended back at St. Marks Square, Barb and I left to go back down the narrow lanes searching for a campo near a smaller canal.  We found one finally, and it has the restaurant in it. So we sat down and ordered two spritzers ( a local drink ) and fruit with white chocolate fondue.  Oh my god we are getting fat, but while we didn't really like the drinks, the fondue was mouth watering!

 

 

Lovely just sitting in a café off the beaten track, watching the gondolas go by!

 

 

 

We finished our day with an early dinner at an Italian restaurant, eating a 5 course meal of fish, risotto, lasagne and unlimited carafe's of wine. We are now back at our hotel early, we pack up again to spend most of our day tomorrow on the road. 600+ KM on our way to Vienna, Austria. If you look at a map you will see why it made sense to leave Innsbruck for Venice and then back to Austria for Vienna.  Hopefully it will be a little cooler up there and we will rest on our air conditioned coach tomorrow before having a group dinner shortly after we arrive.   CIAO!!