Sestière di Dorsoduro

We love our room here, with the very Italian decor and enormous four-poster bed…and we feel totally independent - we come and go with no interaction with reception as they are on the other side of the campo…there is a perfect pasticceria just below us with juice squeezed, coffee and delicious pastries. We couldn’t find satisfactory pastries in Rome, but Venice has redeemed the standard of Italy…

After breakfast we walked to the station along the main route, just to test how far, and how difficult it would be to wheel bags! Venice is not amenable for cripples! Anyway, we decided it wasn’t too bad, and walked back and on to the Accademia where we had booked entry for 10.30. Had a lovely time there, there was a glass exhibit, but all the old works by Venetian masters were what we really loved - lots of Bellini, Tintoretto, Titian and our very favourite enormous painting by Veronese of Feast at the House of Levi…just wonderful with so much funny detail…once we had found that we were satisfied.

It was a cool morning when we set off, and clear and blue sky…(I don’t think I’ll ever check the weather app again)…!! After the gallery we wandered along to Santa Maria della Salute. Bought a sandwich and ate them on a park bench….we noticed the water is quite high, and walking along to Salute, where the water is the lagoon and not an inside canal, it was lapping over the edge when boats went past…a bit tricky walking…sat and admired the view from Salute and gondolas floated past, with gondoliers singing “funiculi funicula” …only in Venice!…and when we finally got back to S Marco the piazza actually was flooded and they had put up the walkways to walk above the water…it wasn’t very bad, but Amr and I have never experienced the acqua alta before, so it is an experience…just hope it doesn’t get too drastic in the next few days!

Tomorrow is Amr’s birthday, and we have decided to have his birthday dinner tonight (and that will be his birthday in Oz) as tomorrow night we go to a concert in La Fenice, the famous opera house which was destroyed by fire a while ago, and I have never been inside…so tomorrow we will have a small early dinner before that, and tonight we can enjoy dinner at leisure.

We have booked a restaurant right near our hotel and right on a canal. Before that we are going to walk along the Fondamente Nuove, and to the Jewish quarter. Just looked out the window and see that it is in fact raining!!! Clouds seem to come and go quickly here - it did sprinkle slightly a while ago, then I saw sun and shadows…we’ll still venture out, maybe with umbrellas.

…well we did venture out and had a lovely walk to the Jewish quarter, and then along the Fondamente Nuove with a wonderful view over to San Michele, the cemetery island, and with a cloud view showing the very fickle weather here…it rained and it was sunny during our walk…We passed the hospital, with the dock for ambulance boats (as in the Donna León detective books) then we walked back, stopping at a little square near the huge church of S Giovanni and S Paolo for a pre dinner drink…we have noticed that EVERYONE is drinking aperol spritz…it is THE cocktail…wherever we go..! I usually have Campari (which is also de rigueur) and Amr does have an Aperol! So we fit in! Arriving back in S Marco the high tide had receded and the alta acqua boards had been taken down (till the next high tide)..then went to the restaurant for dinner…lovely special birthday dinner, right near our hotel.

We walk a lot…usually around 20 kms a day…today Amr’s Apple Watch said 20 and mine said 18, but we had been walking together…so who knows…but we are keeping fit and active!Read more