The next day we headed out after breakfast at the hotel with a big group to go climb the campanile (bell tower) in Piazza San Marco. We got there early enough that there wasn’t a huge line, and since we had 20 people we got a half-price discount on the tickets. Then we rode in an elevator to the top where we had wonderful 360-degree views of Venice. It was particularly cool to look down on St. Mark’s Square and the Church. Then of course, the water around the city, and the relatively low buildings make for a pretty unique aerial view. After taking some pictures we all headed back down and split into smaller sections to wander around the city.
I headed off with Laura, Allison, and Dede to see a kinda local Church that was nice and then we just started walking around the city. We looked in shops and generally explored until eventually we decided to do a gondola ride. So we found a gondolier and took a nice 35-minute ride around the canals. We got to see the Ponte Rialto from the water and see some other canals that you don’t have access to by land. It was a lot of fun.
After that we headed to get some lunch. It took us a while, but eventually we found a place that was off the beaten path and full of locals where we all settled. We had spaghetti and it was very good. Towards the end of the meal a man came in and played the accordion (oh stereotypes). After lunch we meandered back toward our hotel where we met with the group and headed back to the boat. The boat took us to our bus, which drove us all the way home to the Villa where we were greeted by a fantastic cheeseburger dinner! It was fantastic and a great end to a weekend of travel.
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