Day Seven - Venice - June 22, 2012

Today there was a 24 hour vaporetto strike today so no taking the water buses.  With this in mind, we decided to head to Piazza San Marco and take the elevator to the top of the Campanile (bell tower) and get a panoramic view of Venice.

 We arrived and found there wasn't too long of a wait in line for the elevator.

Once at the top of the tower you could see all over Venice.  In fact, they say, on a really clear day you can see all the way to the Italian Alps. We took pictures from all four sides of the tower.

Because it is a bell tower, there are actual bells in the tower.  I was taking these pictures of the bells and asked my niece, Kara, if she thought they ever rang these bells with all the tourists in the tower all day.  We both agreed that no they wouldn't ring the bells with people right underneath them, when one of the bells started ringing.  It was loud, but not as loud as I would have thought, for how close we were standing to it while it was ringing.

After visiting the bell tower and enjoying the overview of Venice, we decided to meander the streets to poke in the shops and finish our souvenir shopping. It was still unbearably hot and humid today (90 degrees with 64% humidity) so another goal was to find air conditioned shops to spend time in.  Venice is full of interesting shops, stores and markets and they kept us occupied most of the afternoon.

These cat marionettes are about 3 feet tall and reminded me of my kitty, Jackson.

 

While out and about we had to indulge in some gelato.  This time all three of us chose the same flavor - Creama of Limone.  It was a creamy vanilla lemon gelato with chunks of chocolate cookies.  It was YUMMO!!! Of course it wouldn't be a day of shopping without me going to the grocery store and finding more cupcake sprinkles!

I also found these Betty Crocker Cupcake and Frosting Mixes. Cake mix, frosting mix and sprinkles to make 9 cupcakes for 7.50 Euros.  Just add eggs, milk, water and oil and bake! Very expensive cupcakes!!

After our wandering shopping excursion we decided to get out of the afternoon sun and heat and headed back to the Hotel for a rest before dinner.  Once the temperature had cooled down a bit we ventured out again to have dinner and explore some more.  We decided to dine in a little neighborhood cafe just down from the Hotel.  It is called Al Cupido.  I love the illustration on the Menu. 

It is located right across from the vaporetto stop and a continuous stream of locals coming home from work or errands stopped in for a drink or to grab a quick bite while we were dining.  I ordered the Margherita Pizza and it was delicious,  The mozzarella cheese was fresh and had a great texture and flavor.  We were kind of sad we hadn't eaten here earlier and discovered the great food and great prices.

This was one of the best pizzas I've ever had.  YUM!!  After dinner we walked over to the Rialto Bridge to take some photos of it and the Grand Canal at dusk.  So beautiful.

We then decided it was time for a gelato nightcap.  We decided to try out the gelateria just down from the Hotel.  We started back for the Hotel.  By the time we got there the gelateria was closing up shop.  No gelato night cap for us tonight.  Tomorrow we board our Norwegian Cruise ship for the Greek Isles.  At this point I'm mostly looking forward to the air conditioning.  Maybe I'll even wash and curl my hair and put on make-up...it could happen.

Buonanotte!