Amr’s birthday in Venice

I had just finished writing up today and it was uploading and somehow it has totally disappeared…don’t know what sensitive part of my iPad I touched, but I have to start from scratch, and am very frustrated as it is after midnight and I just had to add our evening as I had written all the early part of the day in mid afternoon….so now I must try and remember all…GRRRR

Well, in a nutshell, we had a lovely breakfast in the place that is the ground floor of our building…fabulous eatery that has pastries, yogurt, fruit, granola in the morning and then transforms to pizza, focaccia, bruschetta, paninis by lunchtime and for the rest of the day. Also great coffee, juice (and beer, wine and the eternal Aperol!).

So after that we set off and walked…this time over the Rialto and into the markets - lovely fish, fruit, veg, cheese etc…then on to the station across that different route, via churches and beautiful buildings. We picked up some figs and buffala mozzarella in a supermarket which is in an ex theatre…a gorgeous building, still with decorated ceiling and beams, with the supermarket plonked inside…very amazing!

The tide was again up when we returned to S Marco and the boards were up to walk over, but it recedes after a while…we had a drink in the square on the dry side, and waited for our visit inside the basilica. Amr had with great agony managed to get tickets online, as we had observed the chaos and long lines of people waiting…we thought even the people with tickets also had a line - shorted but still a queue…but when we showed up we went straight in to our joy…no waiting at all (and there was an enormous queue of non ticket holders), so it was all worthwhile. Wonderful visit…never ceases to amaze - the mosaics, the gold…we even paid extra to see the Pala d’oro which we hadn’t seen before - a huge ornate sheet of gold and jewels, with enamel pictures…impossible to describe…made as an altar cover…

Afterwards we walked a bit up the riva Schiavoni, but it was raining by then so we went back to the room for some downtime. The weather pattern seems to be fine mornings and then showery afternoons…(but Amr says the prediction for the next 2 days is fine)…we’ll see!

Set off for our concert in La Fenice, with a bit of a walk first…the building is beautifully renovated after the fire…very light - white ceilings with peach coloured walls and trim and chandeliers…our concert was in a smaller hall as it was a chamber group - a sextet from Belgium…lovely music - Wagner, Brahms and Schoenberg. We think we may take a tour of the building if we can fit it in to see all the halls.

Concert finished at a bit after 9.30 and we hoped there would be restaurants still open willing to take new diners..but no problem..a little place just round the corner from the hotel was open and happy and we had a delicious simple meal of pasta (gnocchi for me) and grilled vegetables…Perfect end to the evening.Read more