We woke up pretty early to try to see the very touristy spots before too many tourists woke up and the tours arrived. First we headed to the Ponte Rialto, a beautiful white marble bridge over the busy Rialto. This bridge gets soooo busy later on in the day, but we had it mostly to ourselves. 

We then walked to the Piazza de San Marco THE most touristy spot in Venice by far, but there were relatively few people there! We took advantage of this and took many photos and videos. We marvelled at the golden arches of St.Marks and took photos of the details. I also got to see the Campanile di San Marco (the tower in Mark’s Sqaure) that had been covered and under construction the last time I had visited in 2006. We then checked out the Doge’s Palace, with its unique and utterly gorgeous peach arched exterior. We then walked to the waterfront for some photos of the gondolas bopping up and down on the busy Grande canal before taking in the iconic Bridge of Sighs, named for its historical purpose…being the last glimpse of day light that prisoners saw on their way to prison from the Palazzo Ducale.

We then walked back towards our accommodation, stopping along the way to have a cappuccino and eggy breakfast at a little cafe along Strada Nova (in an area that seemed like maybe Chinatown?).

We then went back to our place to eat our breakfast feast of cheese, olives and bread we had purchased at the theatre grocery store the day before.

We set out on another adventure later on with the intent of seeing two points of interest; the square that Indy comes up into through a manhole in “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade” and then “Punta Della Dog ana Pinault”, a point that juts out into the Grande Canal with views of the Doge’s Palace on the north and the islands to the south.

We sat along the water at Punta Della Dog ana Pinault, pointed towards the south island and watched the boat traffic with our feet dangling over the rocky waters (sometimes dangerously close to soaking our shoes) sipping an Italian lemon soda and a grapefruit soda. The sun was warm and lovely and maybe 26 Celsius, the hottest day of our entire trip to Europe. 

We then walked slowly back towards our accommodation, stopping in a lively square with metal tables and chairs. We decided to take a seat (at table number 9, our lucky number) and ordered our first Campari and Aperol Spritz. Our waiter asked us which of three options we wanted to try, and I asked which one was the best. We said it depended on the person…so I asked which was more bitter, he explained that Campari had artichoke bitters and that it was less sweet. I am not even sure what I ordered, but I think we got Campari and a more bitter drink, all in the same Aperol family, but I don’t think we had an Aperol spritz on this first tasting…. (Aperol actually ended up being too sweet for my taste.) 

We then stopped at the grocery store on the way to our accommodation, finding a lovely smoked ricotta for the next day’s breakfast treats! 

Later in the evening we headed out to a cafe patio nearby our accommodation for dinner. We ordered Gnocchi and Canalloni with an actual Aperol Spritz and a Campari. I like Campari so much more than Aperol. The most bitchy Italian lady sat down next to us, she was around our age and so rude and self centred to the staff and other people around her. She initially stormed over to the patio and stopped right in front of me staring and huffing, apparently I was in her spot. She didn’t ask me to move, just stood right in my personal space until I got up and moved over. She was the type of person that snaps her fingers at waiters, and I think that says a lot about a person. We tipped our waiter quite a lot for having to deal with this crazy Italian lady.

Back at our accommodation we facetimed Jives’ family who were back home in Canada celebrating Thanksgiving. It was really nice talking to Jives’ family over the spotty cellphone internet.