Venice Day 3

Venice - Day 3

Today we have a "Venice Free Walking Tour" booked. This company came with good recommendations through Trip Advisor which I mainly use to research our private tours.

Our meeting time was 11am although the paperwork specified to be there 20 minutes prior and the location was about a 30 minute walk from the ship. We set off just after 9am as we wanted to allow plenty of time to look around on our way.

The group was large but was split into two groups of about 15 people. Our guide was of middle eastern descent but had lived in Venice for about 10 years and was very passionate about her home and gave us lots of useful information.

The tour was to visit "hidden Venice" which was great as we have previously visited all the iconic places that are a must see. We set off down narrow passage ways, under low hanging arches, across bridges over narrow canals as we meandered our way through the districts of Venice.

The tour was for 3 hours with a 20 minute break near the Rialto Bridge for refreshments and to rest our legs. We visited all of the districts except Dorsoduro which is the district closest to the ship and where we wanted to go after the tour so that worked well for us. We saw the Carnevale area where they hand craft the fancy masks, saw the spot where Marco Polo's house once stood, visited the original red light area and much more. All in all it was a good "free" tour with the explained expectation of payment of a tip at the end which probably two thirds did including us as supposedly the guides "volunteer" their time. I would recommend these walking tours but maybe the earlier time slot in summer.

After our tour we had to sit and have a cold Coca Cola which cost 8 euros which also included a cover charge for the seat but it was worth it just to sit as there are not many public seats around Venice. You usually have to find a step somewhere and then there is usually no shade.

Once rested we set off on foot to see the Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari and the amazing paintings in the Scuola Grande Di San Rocco. Truely worth a visit. Thankfully these were in the direction of our walk back to the ship! I was wanting to see the Teatro La Fenice but that will have to wait till our visit next year.

Heading back to the ship we stopped for an ice cream overlooking a branch of the Grand Canal near Piazzale Roma and we found a supermarket for beer at .69 euros, wine and the best cherries.

Back on board we headed straight to the back pool to cool down and then we sat and toasted our stay in Venice with one of our bottles (we bought a case of 12!) of our Princess 50th Anniversary Prosecco and watched the sunset which was around 9pm. Then showered, dined and back on deck for our 10pm sail away.... magical!

Next stop Koper, Slovenia and then a much needed sea day!