M: This morning began with a super glamorous breakfast in bed! They serve breakfast until 8 am here so we were proud of ourselves for making it out of bed on time. But when we got there all the tables were full so we got breakfast to go in a little plastic bag. We of course ended up falling back asleep and waking up a couple hours later to have our melba toast, Nutella and strawberry yogurt breakfast in bed.

The schedule today included only two things: go to the top of the Campanile and find kebabs. I’m starting to figure out the Venetian streets, or at least the many pathways between our place and Piazza San Marco. We stopped for cappuccinos en route at a snack bar where we watched the videos of how they make pastries and cakes while already daydreaming about our next trip.

I did eventually get us to Piazza San Marco, but there was a wee hitch in actually getting into the square. It was flooded.

S: Yesterday I mentioned that sections of streets are sometimes blocked off because there is water lapping up onto them, but today was a whole different story! The street we needed to use was so flooded that only people with rain boots could cross it. After a quick detour we made it to Piazza San Marco… Which was also flooded. We had to skirt around the left side because the middle and right sides were entirely un-walkable for anyone in regular shoes.

After some water hop-scotch and an almost swim, we made it to the Campanile Tower, which thankfully had an elevator! It’s the first tall thing that didn’t involve a million stairs and cusses from me! I will admit it felt less like we had earned the view though. The view however was gorgeous. We could see down into the flooded square, all across Venice and over onto other islands surrounding the main one. Boats and gondolas flowed into and out of canals, people milled about in their rain boots and a storm on the horizon slowly rolled by.

We spent a lot of time walking around a new neighbourhood, primarily because I refused to eat pizza or pasta twice today. The hunt for kebabs was on! It took us a few wrong turns and dead ends (all beautiful!) but we finally found them! Kebabs have been a source of cheap easy food this trip, and we have yet to have one we didn’t like. The neighbourhood seemed like the cheaper side of Venice, with more graffiti and less picturesque bridges but it was beautiful in a worn-out kind of way. Creeping plants growing over old buildings, exposed brick walls and torn street signs greeted us at every turn, all the while the ever present turquoise canals weaved their way under and around us.

M: We felt like playing some cards out in a square with some coffee, so we made the quick walk back to our place to pick up the deck. Instead of heading back out right away we both accidentally fell asleep on the bed still wearing our jackets and boots.

Even though we made fun of John for carrying around a corkscrew in his backpack all the time, we have seen the error in our ways and made the investment. We are spending the night tonight playing cards, watching Friends and drinking wine, made much easier with our new corkscrew.

S&M