Il Canal Grande

Our day started with a simple breakfast in our apartment and then a bit of shopping at our favourite cheese shop for some mozzarella di buffala, a piece of bastardo (if you'll pardon the expression) cheese and some prosciutto crudo, before heading off on vaporetto #1 for  coffee at our favourite cafe in Academia.  We reckon that the vaporetti have 4 classes - economy (inside seating set out like a big bus), premium economy (standing in the crowded middle section with great views and fresh air), business (sitting in one of the 12 seats on the back deck) and first (sitting in one of the 16 seats on the front deck) - and today we managed to score back deck seats.  

Brian was in his element - camera clicking non-stop - and as we approached Academia, asked if I would mind staying on the boat because the light was so fantastic for photos!  


So that is what we did - and stayed on board until Santa Maria Elisabetta, the last stop before the vaporetto sails across the lagoon to the islands.  We just  stepped over to the vaporetto stop next door and waited for the next #1 heading in the opposite direction and this time scored front deck seats!  The sun was shining, there were boats (including an official boat of army officers, a police boat and a couple of fire-engine boats) and gondolas everywhere (including one with a soprano singing an extremely slow version of "Volare" accompanied by piano accordion) and Venice looked spectacular.  


It was lunch time by the time we reached our cafe, but I couldn't resist having a cappuccino (only meant to be had for breakfast), Brian had his standard espresso dopio and we each had a panini with roasted capsicum, grilled zucchini and grilled eggplant.  I thought that the coffee was the best I've ever had in my life - but maybe I was just caught up in the romance of the day!.

Then back to our apartment on the vaporetto, stopping at the market for a few more vegies, then a quick skype call to Peg & Al and a backgammon tournament, before taking the walking tour of San Polo, as suggested in our "Italy" book.

When our landlord visited on Saturday evening, I tried to speak with him in Italian but he insisted on speaking to me in English.  Now this is the landlord who some years ago sent me an email thanking me for the costumes - I assumed that he had sent the email to the wrong person and realised just in time that he was thanking me for the customers I'd sent to him.


So on Saturday, after he showed us on the map where his house is located and invited us to meet him in front of his garden at 8pm tonight, I thought that he was inviting us to his house.  It was only today, after he replied to my email about the internet connection, that I realised that he had invited us to meet him in front of his gondola!  

So guess where we've just been - cruising up the grand canal and around the most beautiful, romantic and quiet canals behind Rialto in the dark, in a gondola powered by our landlord as a gift for being good costumes!!  Oh I love Venice!