Having gone to bed fairly early, it was no real surprise to wake early after a decent sleep, with no noise from either inside or outside. Bliss. The dining room was buzzing with a fair number of our group enjoying a full continental breakfast, which meant the usual light stuff, plus hard boiled eggs. We expect to miss out on an English style cooked breakfast whilst in Italy and France so ham and cheese (and maybe egg) rolls are a breakfast staple, or, fresh croissants – and they are fresh.
After gambling on wearing shorts but also wearing a shower-proof jacket, we headed out towards St Mark's square. However, we had to purchase an umbrella on the way. Paula's map-reading is excellent but all we really needed to do was follow the signs, as above just about every doorway through the maze of streets, there always seemed to be a sign, official or otherwise, leading to our destination.
Typical of the area, there were many window displays of food and we succumbed to an almond topped creation that unfortunately didn't really live up to its promise, being rather chewy and dry. Probably OK with a coffee, but on its own, it wasn't €4.00 well spent. In fact, we biffed a quarter of it.
It was an interesting and pleasant walk, in spite of the rain, with so many fascinating buildings. The mix of styles, then almost a controlled decay, means that a wall may be part repaired in its original style, and part unrepaired, so there are patches of exposed brick in a wall that had been plastered.
We had heard from several people, very varied impressions of Venice, but we were quite happy. It wasn't smelly. It wasn't dirty. However, the amount of graffiti is a disgrace. There is so much graffiti around Italy, that it does tend to spoil it. As was a Sunday, several shops were closed for the day, and without exception, all their roller shutter doors had been defaced, yet we never saw a single hardware shop, paint shop or auto accessory shop selling spray cans. No surprise, given that there is no motorised road traffic in that part of the city. Quite where the spray cans are sold is another traveller's unsolved mystery.
When we arrived at the Rialto bridge, we turned right and sat down to a way over cooked pizza and a coffee. (See the blackened crust on Paula's plate?) Four of the group joined us on the adjacent table, down at canal level. There was some sort of short river parade whilst we sheltered from the rain – celebrating the arrival of summer. One gondola passed with several of our group aboard. Paula wanted to change some Kiwi dollars into Euro, but I wasn't at all happy at the exchange rate offered so we headed off towards the square. On the edge of the square was another exchange booth and that was $50 cheaper. Even for currency exchanges, it pays to shop around and the one away from the tourist hub may not be the cheapest. Our purpose was a 2pm meet up with the others and to have a group pic taken, (that I don't have a copy of!) at which point, the rain stopped and the sun came out.
We then decided to catch the water bus back and having paid €6.50 each, were surprised that no-one checked our ticket for the 14 stop trip. The distance between stops was sometimes as little as 100 metres, but the craft was zig-zagging along the canal picking up and dropping off on both banks. An interesting run with many buildings worthy of either a photograph or an artist's rendition.
For dinner, we found a place just three doors away from the hotel, semi self-service, where the lasagne or other (freshly prepared) pasta was only €5.60. You could even fill your own beer glass.
That was our day in Venice. It may not sound exciting, but we enjoyed a leisurely day out, a pleasant walk and no major attack on the finances, but once again, it was early to bed. Very early for us, as we were quite tired and with a long day ahead tomorrow, as we head to Maranello by coach, for a boy part of the trip. (Venice was deemed a girl part...) 
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