Venice Italy

Travelled:74km
Visite:Venice 
Stay:Monselice-free parking along the canal, no services (searchforsites.co.uk stated there was an aire/sosta in 2008 but no longer), GPS N45.24487 E11.75033

We drove into the parking area allocated to motorhomes and so we had 12 hours to explore Venice. 

The city is a group of 118 small islands separated by canals and linked by lots of bridges. For the next 9 hours we would cross over a few of these bridges and walk along many narrow streets. Our first destination was to find Piazza San Marco, so after we got off the 'People Mover' mono rail we followed the arrow directions written on the buildings to the well known 16th century Rialto Bridge. 

After a few wrong turns - what's a visit to Venice without getting lost! 

Platforms used when Venice is flooded.

We made it. It is surrounded by several of Venice's major sights- St.Mark's Basilica, its separate 98m high bell tower, Doge's Palace along with other large buildings. We walked around and took in the atmosphere and many photos. The crowds of tourists were incredible as well as the cues. 

We went to have a look at the Bridge of Sighs before finding a bite to eat. 

When we returned to St.Mark's Square it was filling up with water due to the high tide. 

Just as I was finishing off my sandwich a huge seagull flew down and tried to take it out of my hand. Needless to say I was quite surprised. Mark decided to feed the rest to the pigeons! 

Next we went over the Accademia Bridge in search of Santa Maria that was built in honour of Mary in freeing the city from the plague.

 From here we made our way back to the Rialto Bridge and walked along the Grand Canal as much as we could. The majority of the city's water traffic goes up and down this canal from the train/bus station to St.Mark's Square. 

Along the way we passed the Rialto Market and the Ca' d'Oro. 

Today as we explored the city we encountered many churches, some had been transformed into museums or to exhibit art or music especially opera as Venice was Vivaldi's birth place. There were many shops selling masks and others glass ware, as Venice is also famous for Venetian and Murano (a near by island) Glass. There were some beautiful pieces but you needed to be careful as not all shops sold the local product. It was an amazing day.

Our parking spot in Monselice as the sosta no longer exists.

Decided to buy a new portable pizza oven for Bluey to tow around...