Shopping in Venice

We decided to go to Gino's at Academia for breakfast this morning and were delighted to see that Friday's market was still being set up with boats everywhere, delivering all types of produce, and also that there was mist on the grand canal - something I have been hoping to see.  

We spent a bit more time on the vaporetti than we had planned (caught the wrong one and ended up at the other end of the canal) and then walked miles and miles between San Toma and Rialto, then between Rialto and San Marco in and out of shops everywhere along the way, dropping in at "home" part way through to dispose of some shopping, have a bite of lunch, and to change into slightly less casual clothes, as well as having a delightful and very happy skype call to Peg & Al and Kerri, Oliver & Ozzie who were visiting them for dinner. 

In summary, today's shopping covered:

1.  More cheese and proscuitto crudo from our favourite cheese shop.

2.  Pears, bright red tomatoes and Sicilian grapes from the market.

3.  A few souvenirs for us.

4.  Lots of little gifts for everyone at home.

5.  Birthday presents for Kerri and Freya.

6.   A beautiful gift from Brian to me - a necklace from the same jewellery shop where he bought me a bracelet 3 years ago.

And after all of that, we ended up at Harry's Bar which was absolutely packed and we sat upstairs at a tiny little table, where I had a Bellini to start followed by Tagliatelle all'Amatriciana and Brian had a Dry Martini followed by Pappardelle with Saffron and Bacon and we shared a small jug of red wine.  Our waiter brought a complimentary dessert for us to share - a huge slice of lemon meringue pie - which neither of us felt like eating at all but managed to nibble away at just to be polite!

Then back home on the vaporetto in back-deck seats after a tiring but lovely day.  

During the past week, we have spent so many hours waiting on the floating vaporetto stops and travelling on the vaporetti themselves, that I now have a perpetual sense of balancing on water.  Wonder for how long that's going to last?