From the moment we stepped off our water taxi from the airport, onto the landing platform of our hotel, with it's red and white candy cone gondola posts, I knew I was going to like it.

We stayed in the Giorgione Suite of the Ca' Vendramin Di Santa Fosca - with sumptuous red and gold decor and fascinating ceiling frescoes. Both of us slept like logs, exhausted from the wedding, but woke up with the sun streaming through the grand windows, calling us out onto our little stone balcony, beckoning us to feast our eyes on the spectacle that is Venice.

It looked like a film set. I half expected a director to shout 'cut' at any moment, and for all the walls to be carried away by crew. The water in the canal below was a stunning opaque jade, as if it had been treated with colourants to look this way. It was just incredible.

A short walk to the Grand Canal and we hopped on a vaporetto (that's the local bus, by the way), to get our bearings. What a sight! Every building facade along the canal had it's own colour and character, and the water was a highway for boats, some with engines, others with a single oar.

Piazza di San Marco was our stop. We followed the crowds through the narrow streets and then out into the vast open space of the square swarming with people and pigeons.

We marvelled at the mosaics in the Basilica di San Marco: the golden ones on the ceiling and the marble ones on the floor, and worked up an appetite for lunch.

After a panini and a pint, we decided to hop back on the vaporetto to the island of Murano. Neither of us were interested in the decorative glass that Murano is famous for, (and we are even less interested for having gone there), but it was a refreshing trip out on the open water, clearing our heads, beginning the process of un-winding.

We soaked up the last of the sun at a table by the Grand Canal, with vino rossi and the meatiest green olives I've ever tasted. And in the evening we ate at a restaurant near the hotel. Do Italians really eat pasta and then a main course? We gave it a go, but it was just too much!

Day two. After the obligatory gondola ride, where the sunlight reflects the canals and dapples the crumbling stucco, where the cries of gondoliers echo around corners, and the motorboats of the canale grande seem a million miles away, we changed our mode of transport and set about exploring Venice on foot. Through dark narrow alleys that open out into quiet sun-bleached piazza down to San Marco, then crossing the Grand Canal by traghetti (gondolas for where there's no nearby bridge), to have a wander through the Peggy Guggenheim museum. This late, rich American lady has a collection of modern art housed here, in what used to be her home. We keep an open mind with these things, but must admit that some pieces stretched our mortal imaginations just that bit too far.

Pizza and salad in the mid-afternoon sun, and then back on our feet again, weaving through the beautiful back streets of San Polo, rejoining the crowds at the Rialto Bridge.

Our last night already! We maximised the romance with a meal at one of the canal side restaurants - pricey, but delicious. Time to leave this fairy tale city, with fond memories and head off on the next stage of our honeymoon tour of Italy. Ciao Venezia!

Labels: travel