Homeward Bound

Chris doing his best Richard Nixon impression - V for victory, Yeahhhhhh we made it!

Excluding South America, we made it around the world in 85 days. Not quite Phileas Fogg's record but hey! Not bad!

Wow, we made some great new friends, have seen so many amazing things. Incredible works of art, beautiful performances, breathtaking landscapes & a glimpse of some of the world's most precious yet sadly now so very endangered species...


It's been great to be able to blog about it all but it really did not do our journey any real justice. Back in the homeland safe & sound now and ready to take on the world. Ok time to start planning our next adventure.... Much Love, Chris & Nicola x

A Fond Farewell

Thanks to a tip from a local, we said our goodbyes to Venice eating a delicious lunch at a little Osteria named Bancogiro. It's on the Grand Canal, RIGHT beside the Rialto Bridge but in a little hidden spot, away from all the tourists believe it or not. The food, wine & service were all amazing.























So long sinking city...

One Last Beautiful Sunset...

Wish we could bottle them. Yeah we know you've seen a few of these on our blog but we did sit in a lot of rain! The photo really doesn't do it justice. The sun filled the canal with a beautiful golden light. We watched the sun set, sitting on a bridge drinking a bottle of Champagne. Can't go wrong with a good sunset.

Cribs

How about the Doge's Palace for a future episode of Cribs?


The Golden Stairway to the Doge's apartments - Just because you can, doesn't mean you should right?




Looking down into the inner courtyard


So... when you are stood staring at the bridge of sighs...


We're all staring at you.... View from inside the infamous Bridge of Sighs. The last thing that prisoners saw before entering the dungeons or being hung from it...


Either these are the house rules or someone had a lot of time on their hands. Writing on the wall inside one of the cells.


Chris in the inner courtyard

Lido

Yeah so since we didn't fork out the cash for a gondola ride we decided to stow away on the ferry over to Lido island. We were told to pay when we got on. Turns out, when it's really crowded they don't notice you getting onto the boat... Truth is you can hardly move to even get your change out. Chris flying the flag for Italy.

Pimp My Ride!

No Explanations necessary...


No, as much as we wanted to be cliché, we did not pay $100 for a 30 minute trip in what can only be referred to as the Grand Canal gondola grid lock.

Early Birds

OMG! We must have walked a marathon by now! If you ever need a workout just spend a couple of days in Venice... Up early today to beat the day tripper tours. Thank goodness for Italian Espressos!

We really had no idea that the Rialto Bridge was covered in cheesy little tourist shops & stalls. Good thing about coming over early is that they are all closed :-)


St. Marks Square


St. Mark's Campanile


The lion of Saint Mark


The Bridge of Sighs

Canal Cuisine

Dinner by the canal on Fondamenta Della Misericordia near the hotel.

Cool thing is here, is that it's mostly locals & a little away from the beaten track so for a minute you actually feel like you're in the real Venice rather than the "Disney" version...

Cafe Fondamenta - great pizza but steer clear of the Spritz...

Strolled back to the hotel - crazy Italian, delicious ice creams in hand past some of the fabulous window displays that make for some great window shopping by night

Walk About

Double sided rotating porcelain head anyone? Anyone?






















St. Marks Square






















The market near the Rialto Bridge in San Polo - Great street shot we just gotta photoshop out the tourists...

Cicchetti Pet

From Dorsoduro we headed back up towards San Polo along a canal in search of a famous carver of gondola oar posts & oars. Instead we found a very cool little Bacaro & sampled some of the local Cicchetti & wine. Much better idea...

Riley's evil Italian cousin... Ricco. Not half as cuddly or cute as you Riley Dawg... Ricco: "Errrr you are interfering with my tan, go get me a cigarette" (oops sorry Brian - hope you're still keeping up the good work!).

Pants

From the Accademia over to the tip of Dorsoduro to the dome topped church of Salute.  To get through doors this size apparently you're gonna need some big pants :-)  We're not kidding, you've gotta have your legs well & truly covered up!

The church interior was beautiful, cool & inviting.  Huge lanterns hang from the ceiling providing vivid splashes of colour to a bleached marble Nave.

Prelude To A Work of Art

Transport strike on today....  Wait Deja Vu!...  So we took a stroll over the Rialto to the Galleria Dell Accademia to check out it's beautiful works of art.  No photo taking inside the academy but that didn't stop Chris from shooting this equally beautiful work of art along the way there...

Musical Interlude

I guess there's a festival going on today.  Scattered around the city there are pockets of musicians playing mostly classical music from what we can tell.  Very haunting to hear it wafting across the canals & down the little alleys...

Rock of Love....

On the way back from the Arsenale we headed off on a wild goose chase to find a rock apparently shaped like a heart...  Yeah using our badly marked hotel map, navigating streets with no names (apparently even the local Venetians claim that some of them still remain unnamed...), we somehow managed to find a little stone hidden inside a doorway vaguely shaped like a heart.

The story goes that the stone brings luck to lovers & attests to the love once felt between an ancient sailor & a siren of the sea....  We had a quick snog underneath and made a quick exit for the hotel.  Good thing too as the heavens opened once again & down came the rain...

For those of you in search of the stone you can find it under the doorway named "Sotoportego Dei Preti" - Errrr yeah, good luck! 

On Tour

No need to worry about looking like a tourist in Venice, because apparently that's all the population consists of...

Case in point.  Classic tourist shot of Chris...

Hey look gondolas - Big surprise!  Yeah better get that shot taken now, 'cos errrr we're not going to see any more of those while we're here....

Super hot today, we finally get our warm weather & there's no beach & no pool to swim in & Yeah, we wont be going for a dip in the canals!

Strolled through the Castello & Arsenale areas, checked out the beautiful architecture & amazing churches.  Most of them oddly enough, charge you to go in, no wonder the Catholic Church is the wealthiest church on Earth!