Closest we got to a gondola ride was at the campsite

Glamping

Cool dude all in yellow

Sun 26 Jul – Mon 27 Jul 2015

We arrived at our camping village just outside of Venice around 8pm on Saturday evening. After a long wait to check in we had a our first taste of Italian pizza, mmmmm in the restaurant by the pool! Our tent was like an army tent and had a light and plug socket and a locking door. There was a bunk bed and separate single bed – it was more like ‘glamping’ really.

When we woke on Sunday morning we got ready and headed into Venice. It was a 15 minute walk to the bus stop but it came almost immediately. We tried to buy a ticket but the bus driver told us to buy when in Venice so we didn’t. We stopped for a bite to eat and split a pizza, salad, coke and a coffee. With our poor, yet free map from the camping village we went through the city, along all of the canals.

We stumbled upon a lady folding some paper outside of an old church. She told us there was a concert on later in the evening and it was only 5 euros for students! It was called Vivaldi vs Handel and was being preformed on period instruments in a 12th century church. We continued on towards the Rialto Bridge (which was under restoration) and St. Mark’s Square. We decided that we wanted to go to the concert so we headed back through the twists and turns of Venice and luckily found the church. The concert was amazing – we had been looking for a classical music concert since Prague and it didn’t disappoint – there was even an opera singer!

After the concert we headed back towards St. Mark’s Square to see it lit up at night. We were going to sit at a nearby cafe where there was a quartet playing some lovely music, but it was 13 euros for a pint of beer and 9.80 for a coke.  So Matt bought a beer from a vendor for 3.50 and we sat next to the water and enjoyed the city at night. It was getting late by then and we had a bit of an intense hike to get back to catch the last bus back. Luckily we ran into a nice couple from the States who had been living in Venice and they pointed us in the right direction when we were really lost.

We spent the entire day on Monday (and Tuesday morning/early afternoon after check out) by the pool – how relaxing!