Day 2 - Friday - Gargnana - around the lakes - on to Venice
Eager beaver that I am, I dragged us out of bed early enough to have breakfast in the garden. Ah, the joy of pastries for breakfast. We were out and on the road early, with a planned drive around some of the smaller lakes and then onto Venice. ** TODO INSERT ROUTE HERE**. The roads ascending the mountains were incredible - single lane and turning back on itself constantly. But the tough drive (and the smell of burning brakes on the way down), was well worth it. We descended into a valley with the lake glittering in front of us and blue skies above. There was some general pootering about and lunch and plenty of time to adore the landscape. We drove up as far as Trento before deciding to come back to the main roads and drive to Venice. Venice Airport (where we were parking our car) was fairly non-discript but had great transport links into the city, so we were into Venice by about 7pm.
Oh my,Venice. Completely gorgeous! We took the vaperetto to our hotel which took us through the Grand Canal and under Rialto Bridge. The canal was busy with local traffic - as well as the vaperettos, there was lots of gondolas, water taxis and lots of speedboats, little motorboats - all and sundry. It was only when we arrived that we realised that both the Film Festival and the Regatta were on - so there was plenty of bling going on! We disembarked at St Tomas and meandered through a little of Venice to our hotel - again, pretty basic, but nicely done, and with a view of the labarynth of tiny streets and a local canal. We nipped out pretty quickly and wandered about - it feels a bit like Disneyland, becauseit's just FULL of tourists. During high season, Venetians make up less than 10% of the city population but there was at least plenty of Italians around. It's almost impossible not to become a cliche, and inevitably we made the mistake of having dinner by a canal - which was picturesque, but pungent. We wrote it up to "things that just have to be done" and moved on. We walked right through Venice and Rialto Bridge (a name that I found amusing the entire visit - it's nothing like "Rialto, Dublin", in case you're wondering). We spent a while watching the foot traffic and the water traffic flow - nothing like watching a boat doing a three point turn in the middle of a busy canal.
Afterwards, we wandered on, towards St Mark's Square, though the maze of streets of the San Marco district. There's a fairly strong stream of people going from St Mark's to Rialto, so we never got very lost, but I could easily see how it would be impossible during the day. St Mark's was a bit flat, actually, but probably because we came at the wrong time - it was near the end of the evening - most people were heading off after dinner, or wondering where to go for the night. However, the big street restaurants still had quartets on stages, battling jazz with opera to pull in custom. Regardless of the incredible amounts of scaffolding and ads, it was still very romantic. Tired souls that we were, we wandered around only for a short time, before finding a nice vaperetto to take us home.
Oh my,Venice. Completely gorgeous! We took the vaperetto to our hotel which took us through the Grand Canal and under Rialto Bridge. The canal was busy with local traffic - as well as the vaperettos, there was lots of gondolas, water taxis and lots of speedboats, little motorboats - all and sundry. It was only when we arrived that we realised that both the Film Festival and the Regatta were on - so there was plenty of bling going on! We disembarked at St Tomas and meandered through a little of Venice to our hotel - again, pretty basic, but nicely done, and with a view of the labarynth of tiny streets and a local canal. We nipped out pretty quickly and wandered about - it feels a bit like Disneyland, becauseit's just FULL of tourists. During high season, Venetians make up less than 10% of the city population but there was at least plenty of Italians around. It's almost impossible not to become a cliche, and inevitably we made the mistake of having dinner by a canal - which was picturesque, but pungent. We wrote it up to "things that just have to be done" and moved on. We walked right through Venice and Rialto Bridge (a name that I found amusing the entire visit - it's nothing like "Rialto, Dublin", in case you're wondering). We spent a while watching the foot traffic and the water traffic flow - nothing like watching a boat doing a three point turn in the middle of a busy canal.
Afterwards, we wandered on, towards St Mark's Square, though the maze of streets of the San Marco district. There's a fairly strong stream of people going from St Mark's to Rialto, so we never got very lost, but I could easily see how it would be impossible during the day. St Mark's was a bit flat, actually, but probably because we came at the wrong time - it was near the end of the evening - most people were heading off after dinner, or wondering where to go for the night. However, the big street restaurants still had quartets on stages, battling jazz with opera to pull in custom. Regardless of the incredible amounts of scaffolding and ads, it was still very romantic. Tired souls that we were, we wandered around only for a short time, before finding a nice vaperetto to take us home.