EVERY DOGE HAS HIS DAY

Buona Sera,
Venice is fantastic and approaching by ferry is the perfect way to start. St Mark's and the Doges Palace, iconic symbols both, show you have arrived.

With river taxis, gondolas and vaporettos criss-crossing the waterways you could have arrived in any century. Having seen many of the sights on previous visits we spent much of the 3days wandering the back streets and taking vaporetos around the city. a one-day strike by the ferrymen (trying for an extra hour for lunch, no doubt) meant that an extra day exploring last week was not possible.

I know many conspiracy theorists think I write this from a basement in Tooting, so rare are my appearances - so here I am to prove you wrong.

We had some good meals out, great pasta as you might expect, although had we read the reviews in advance we probably wouldn't have gone. What some people see as rude service (probably Yanks) Iwe perceive as quirky. Despite their generous tipping, I think most restaurateurs are not so pleased to have Americans as they are invariably loud, discuss various gynaecological problems and keep customers away. Similarly the Japanese turn up en masse and share 1 pizza between 12.

The Rialto Bridge.

We visited a couple of new places. The Ca D'Or pictured below 

and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. The latter had a diverse collection of 20 Century art including Piccasso, Chagall and Magritte but as so often with modern galleries, the rest was mainly Pollocks!

Have I mentioned the Germans? Didn't think so. Our campsite, on the Adriatic is huge with over 500 of the 550 pitches occupied by Germans. We thought we had found an English motorhome but when we approached with the aim of swapping DVDs and books the owners turned out to be German. In a GB registered van. Flippin' cheek!

At least this little chappy seems pleased to see us.

Ciao

J&P