A world class city

OK, I lied. We aren’t in Trieste yet but having had another spectacular day in Venezia I thought it only fair to share…

As I write we are on the super efficient, super comfortable, super cheap FrecciaRosso train which makes our train service look outdated, under invested, bloody expensive and well … crap!

But enough of that, other than to say, €20 or so for a first class ticket from Venice to Trieste! Includes drinks and a snack! So less than it costs me to get to East Croydon on an overcrowded shit tip with the toilets out of action. Enough, I said.

Back to Venice, where we spent another magical day yesterday. Beginning with a busking session by some choir from somewhere like Slovenia or Croatia we think. Made a very joyful start to our day.

I’ll spare you too much verbiage and just share with you some pics of the magnificent Doge’s Palace, the magical Peggy Guggenheim gallery, the magical Grand Canal and to finish off the day, a recital of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons - in his birth place. (Well, not the hospital, but a church known as the Vivaldi Church - or something like that). A seven piece string ensemble did it justice and it was a beautiful evening, followed of course by pasta and panacotta. And wine.

Having seen the queues at the Doge’s Palace the day before we sensibly bought tickets in advance and got in pretty much as soon as it opened. Didn’t quite have it to ourselves but it was a lot more peaceful than it might have been. And an amazing place it is, primarily focussing its role as the courts of justice and administration of the Venetian Republic.

And just to mention one of the hundreds of masterpieces that adorn the palazzo. It houses the largest oil painting in the world (allegedly). One mother of a Tintoretto!

And its connection to the prison next door provided a pretty stark contrast between those with power and those unlucky enough to come into conflict with it. The walk from one to the other, for those unlucky enough to be sent down, included their last glimpse of sea and sky - which led to many a sigh … on The Bridge of Sighs.

We bought paninis at a local bar to nosh overlooking the Grand Canal in the shade of the Ponte de l’Academia.

Then, as recommended by our friend Kate, we spent another glorious couple of hours in the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery and Gardens. Judging by the range of very famous (and expensive) modern artists on display, they clearly had some dosh, those Guggenheims. Couldn’t work out how she was related to Solomon R (of New York Guggenheim Gallery) but she was and having lived in Venice for many years (and was married to Max Ernst I believe) she left her house and its contents for following generations to enjoy. So we did! And we had proper hot chocolate and cake in the cafe too.

By judicious use of a 75 minute single ticket on the vaporetto we managed to travel the whole of the Grand Canal and then some to return to our hotel for a rest before settling in for our Vivaldi treat and a meal at the restaurant we had found on our arrival evening - with if anything was even better. Especially as we are now best mates with Luigi the Maitre D’.

Finally this morning, we decided to take the water taxi directly from our hotel to the station. Not the cheapest option but a lovely experience on another fabulous morning and had the added merit of ensuring we didn’t to miss our train.

So that will do for Venice. It will likely be on our Austrian train from Trieste to Ljubljana that I next put finger to keyboard, but who knows. We have been ridiculously lucky with the weather so far, having seen virtually nothing but blue sky, but some rain is in the forecast for tomorrow so some cafe sitting might be in order. Whatever, it will be an adventure…

For now, farewell to beautiful Venezia