- Got up, checked out of Hotel Martelli in Florence, and walked to train station to catch a train to Venice.
- Walked from the Venice train station to our hotel. Whew! We crossed eight small bridges and two larges ones, all of which had steps up and down, with our huge suitcases! At this point, we realized that Venice is basically a maze and that no expertise at map-reading would help us.
- Had lunch at Snack Bar Mio, a tiny place where a lot of gondoliers eat lunch. Brad had a shrimp sandwich; Jill had a crab with rocket sauce sandwich. Still not exactly sure what rocket sauce is, but it was delicious.
- Wandered around and looked at many of the thousands of glass shops for which Venice is famous. Jill bought some glass candy and a small Venetian mask. We were amazed at every single shop we entered. All the glass trinkets, even the cheap tourist stuff, was absolutely gorgeous.
- Went to the meeting place for our pre-booked “gondola serenade.” Our Hulk Hogan-looking gondolier, Sergio, smoked a cigarette and yelled to his fellow gondoliers the entire time. At one point, he pulled up to the side of a canal and accepted a beer that someone offered him, cracking it open and drinking it while rowing us along. So much for the idea of a romantic gondola ride.
- After the tour, we had dinner at Trattoria al Vaporretto, which had no English subtitles on the menu. We both ordered from the fixed price menu and shared all the items: spaghetti al pescatora (seafood), risotto con scoglia (squid), calamari fritti (the best calamari either of us had ever tasted), sepia in umido con polenta (stewed squid), insalata verde, and a half liter of pino grigio. This was one of the best meals we had.
- Wandered back to the hotel, stopping outside the opera on the way. We sat on the steps of an adjacent building and listened to the last song of the night.
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