Day 30 – May 15 Sunday

I was up at 5.30am, a shower, then woke Tereza for a walk around the Perugia old town before breakfast at 7am.  The main street was covered with litter from the night before (Perugia is the only foreign students university, young people from all over the world study here & it seems that a lot of them like to hang out at night together, they were orderly didn’t even make very much noise) – we were up before the street cleaners – there wasn’t a soul around & we had Perugia to ourselves while we walked up to the main square.  The air was lovely & fresh, it wasn’t until we were on our way back that the cleaners started to move in & we came across a few people.  Breakfast was superb, there was a great selection & it was all very good quality, the cold meats were amongst the best we have tasted.  The pastries were also superb.  We were on the road by 7.40am to Venice.

The road from Perugia to Venice was fairly good for a while & the beautiful farm scenery continued.  As we got into the Tuscany the road got twisty & steep & there were hardly any houses in sight.  We passed through a former volcanic area with lots of ash visible – there were also a large number of men fishing in isolated spots on the creeks & rivers.  As we came out of the mountains back down onto the east coast of Italy the road improved & the number of houses increased.  A lot of the farms were now orchards with neatly trimmed & espaliered fruit trees.  The rain also started & came down heavy for a while.  We stopped for a quick bite of lunch at a roadside rest house then reached Venice around 1.30pm.

In Venice the buses stop & unload baggage at a special boat porter station, where the luggage is all loaded onto special baggage boats & ferried to the hotels.  We had to walk about one kilometre to the Hotel Amadeus along the canals, up & down bridge after bridge (4).  The Hotel is a small boutique place, old but quaint.  We left nearly straight  away by ferry boat, shared with another Insight tour group, along the Grand Canal into St Mark’s Square.  Lucky it was low tide so no flooding problems, however, it was still raining lightly.  We admire all the old Venetian palaces, saw the Doge’s Palace & the Bridge of Sighs & ended up at a glass factory, where we saw a demonstration of glass blowing by a master glassmaker.  He was very, very good & very fast.  It was amazing how quickly he made an elegant cobalt blue vase & a horse standing on its hind legs.  Next we went into the showroom & saw a display of some exceptional glass artwork, with an explanation of how it was made.  There really are some magnificent pieces displayed, with a price to match.  The glass chandeliers were very creative & elegant, all too big to fit our tiny house.   We wandered around a little bit more by ourselves before heading back to catch the ferry to the hotel.  By this time our rooms were ready & it took a little bit of exploring to find room 101 – it was actually more 2^nd floor – but not quite.  The room is small, but well decorated in 18^th century Venetian style with antique furniture to match.

There was really only time to change clothes & put something warm on I had a singlet, a long sleeve thermal shirt, skivvy a thick jumper & my thick jacket & my rain coat on – unbelievable yesterday we had 31C I don’t think it was 11C today plus wind & rain) before it was off to dinner at a nearby very elegant restaurant, a nice three course meal with tiramisu (again) for desert.  As we finished dinner it was time to catch a water taxi for a tour along the canals, Magical Venice, to see some of the more famous & beautiful Venetian palaces by night.  It was cold but at least the rain had just about stopped.  W ended up at St Mark’s Square again, this time at nigh & as we arrived I noticed some water bubbling up out of some manhole covers.  We went to a beautiful cafe, had a drink & were entertained by a quartet – violin, cello, piccolo & piano – playing some beautiful classical music.  The band was really good & we were thoroughly enjoying the music before we had to leave to catch our 10.30pm boat back to the hotel.  Just as well because the water levels had risen significantly from the water bubbling through the manhole covers in the square,  (we had to doge around to miss all the water) a few more minutes & we would have had to wade through water to get out of the square.  Luckily the rain had stopped & we had a 20 minute boat trip back to the hotel.  Even if Mother Nature didn’t smile down upon us in Venice we still enjoyed this amazing city & the gondola ride was the only thing cancelled due to the rain, strong winds & choppy water.