The start of Rodney’s birthday on Tuesday was not quite as we had hoped. We both woke up feeling rather ill and only a hot shower and some breakfast outside in the sunshine made us both feel slightly more human. We wandered over to the bus stop later in the morning and the no. 19 bus whisked us over the causeway to Piazzale Roma on the west side of Venice. First stop was a pharmacy to get something for sore throats and then the aim was to just wander around, no plan, no goal, just a bit of a roam about until we felt the need to go home and rest. Just after leaving the pharmacy Mark and Fiona phoned us from Sydney and that really lifted our moods, though I found it rather hard talking with such a horrible cough. Thank you guys, it was really kind of you to call and it did pick us up, or was that the medicine……?!!
So we strolled around in zig-zags with the only other need at that point being to find a WC. The constant presence of water and the occasional fountain always makes the need more urgent, and buying a drink in a café so that you can use their loo, doesn’t really solve the problem, it only creates another, later need. Report on today’s cappuccino: “it was okay”. My hot chocolate was really, really good again; I wonder if I can buy the stuff in a supermarket.
We meandered through the Doroduro district and found ourselves on the waterfront on the south side. There was a light breeze blowing which felt really nice, so we stuck to the water’s edge and wandered right along to point where the Basilica di Sante Maria della Salute stands. We stood a while and looked across the Grand Canal to St Mark’s Square and breathed it all in.
Rodney was starting to get hungry, so we wandered through the streets of the Accademia district to find the Ristorante Gianni which we had passed earlier, right on the waterfront, facing the Isola della Giudecca. Rodney enjoyed a pile of creamy tagliatelle and I had a kebab stick loaded with five large tiger prawns and a salad. Both were delicious and just what we fancied. Sitting there taking in the views and watching the passing people and boats, Rodney announced that he was “now getting in to Italy”; it took a while, but we have spent a lot of time in France.
Every corner that you turn as you stroll around every district of Venice, could be another photograph, it’s hard not to take too many. We ambled through narrow laneways, quiet streets, busy streets, silent piazzas and ones full of crowds. We walked alongside, crossed over, and came up against dead ends, of endless canals and still we kept walking. We don’t know if we got lost, because you can’t really get lost if you’re not aiming to be anywhere in particular. We had the obligatory gelato on the waterfront of the Castello district and we sucked on cough sweets all day until around 7pm when we found ourselves back at the Piazzale Roma and caught a bus back to the campsite.
On Wednesday morning I woke up feeling even worse and running a temperature, but the hot shower, a bit of breakfast and a morning nap had me feeling a lot better by lunch time. At least I don’t look as awful as Piglet is looking now; he’s been travelling with me for 28 years and I have a feeling this may be ‘Death In Venice’ for him. I don’t think he has cholera, but his face has just about fallen off and one arm is definitely broken. I’m not sure he should travel with us any more…..
It may have been silly to spend all day hanging around at home while the sun was shining, but I for one definitely needed the rest. However, as we got off the bus around 5:30pm the clouds came over. We wanted to spend an evening in Venice and fully intended to have at least one more, full day there, so this was our evening of roaming the romantic city….. Just as we reached the Piazza San Marco the showers started. Thankfully they were only light and we needed dinner.
We passed on the €8.50 cup of espresso in the St Mark’s Square; Rodney tried to sneak a photo of the menu as proof, but they were too old and faded; they obviously don’t spend their profits on printing new ones. The showers didn’t create the best ambience in the square, though it was rather nice without the crowds, so we headed away, down some more narrow streets.
I love the way, when you’re wandering this city, you can find yourself in a street, or a piazza and realise that you’ve been this way before. And then it’s also quite amazing that even after days of wandering, there are still more streets and canals that you haven’t already discovered. One thing we didn’t expect to discover was a Hard Rock Café, but being in the need of something completely different to wake up our germy taste buds, we took a table and both tucked in to a plate of ribs.
With full bellies we took a few more turns around this rabbit warren city and then stood on the Rialto Bridge after the sun had set, watching the gondolas passing below. By 9 oclock, feeling tired and sniffy, we followed the painted signs to the Piazzale Roma. The signs would occasionally disappear and reappear a few streets later, but they finally did lead us there; though we don’t believe it was ever the shortest route……
