That title pretty well sums up Venice in three words and one could easily see the major sights in less than a day if pushed. A more sensible approach would be a full week, but we allowed ourselves 3 days, meaning we will have to come back at some point to finish what we missed.
Today we joined the masses in St Mark's Square and managed to avoid getting dive bombed by the pigeons as we made our way to the relative quiet of the Correr Museum. There we spent an hour or so getting an overview of Venitian Art, Culture and History.
Crossing the Square we decided to skip the line leading to the Basilica, opting instead for a tour of the Doge's Palace and the adjacent prison. The two are connected by the Bridge of Sighs and essentially show the best and worst places to hang out in Venice in the " Good Old Day"
Emerging from the prison at roughly 1:30pm we realized the line into the Basilica wasn't getting any shorter, and having already seen close to 150 churches on previous tours of Europe we decided to save it for our next visit and grab some lunch.
Restaurant prices are inversely proportional to the distance the restaurant is from St Mark's so a Pannini and drink on the Square is 13 Euro whereas, by our B&B ( 1.2 km away ) it is 4 Euro.
We settled on a halfway point for a pizza and vino blanco for me while Susanna opted for a spaghetti starter and a seafood salad. 24 Euro in total.
A quick power nap later we found ourselves catching a Vaporetto ( water taxi) for an almost complete circumnavigation of the island. Hoping off on the South East edge of the island we took a leisurely walk along the shore of St Mark's Basin, a promenade with dozens of overpriced restaurants and gondola operators vying for our patronage.
After another quick foray through St Mark's Square we wandered the interior of the San Marco district and all it's touristic finery. All the big name stores were represented, Guggi , Dolce and Banana ( or whatever it's called) , Coach, etc, etc. We never did find a Mark's and Spencer and there didn't seem to be a Walmart, but we wern't really there to shop so it didn't matter. I almost bought a new shaving brush but the 120 euro price tag was a slight deterrent - badger hair- most likely hand plucked by a guy named Louigi Two Fingers after getting the others bitten off!!!
We eventually stumbled upon a restaurant offering a decent Menu al Dia- ( Daily Special) As always, spaghetti to start and we decided on grilled fish with grilled veggies as the main. The fish was served whole- I love it when my meal stares back at me! And I still hate eggplant. Grilled, fried, baked or whatever, it still has the texture of limp wallpaper- Thank God it also came with zucchini, tomato and pepper.
A slow meandering walk home gave us a glimpse of the nightlife we might have enjoyed had we been 30 years younger. A few street parties seemed to be breaking out but we have to save our strength for the rest of the trip.
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