We left Florence in the pouring rain early this morning and arrived in a Grey Venice at 9.34.

We found our way to our hotel, and the lady offered us a room upgrade for a small fee which included breakfast,  which we accepted. She also said that we could check in immediately instead of leaving our luggage as we had planned to do. Our room has a view of a canal.

We had a small issue on the train as we should have activated our travel on the App. The fine for not having done this is 50Euro. Anyhow the lady showed William what to do, and didn’t fine us. We said Gracia a good few times!  The joke is that we traveled by train on Sunday, and had our tickets checked and nobody said anything!

Venice is a beautiful city – so different to anything we have ever seen.

We found our way to San Marks Square, and got tickets at 11.28 for the 11.30 boat trip to 3 islands Murano, Torchelli and Burano.  The next trip was 30 min later, so saved us waiting!

In Venice the public transport is on the waterways.

We even saw the ambulance – siren blaring – heading off on the water. We also saw the fire engine – but it was parked.

In the centre of Venice there are no cars. In the main canals there are beacons to direct the traffic. Apparently there are 70,000 beacons in the water.  They have different speed limits depending on where they are.

Anyhow, back to our boat trip…..the first stop was Murano, which is famous for its glass making. We watched a glass making and blowing demonstration- very similar to the one we saw at Ngwenya Glass in Swaziland. Very interesting. We then walked around the island on our own before returning to our boat. Our second stop was Torchelli. Sadly, the Grey weather was now drizzle and cold. We walked around the island- went into the Cathedral and a few shops and then returned to our bus.  We personally didn’t think that Torchello was great!

Our last stop was Burano – this island is known for its brightly coloured houses – the Bo-Kaap of Italy – and lace making by hand. Very pretty things – and very expensive!!!

By this stage it was raining and a cold wind was blowing.  The boat brought us back to the station which is close to where we are staying.

William was impressed with the bus drivers in Florence as they maneuver busses into tiny roads. Some routes have dinky busses as the big busses can’t fit.  The dinky busses are like the big busses – just squashed….ie shorter. He was also impressed with the skipper today who maneuvered this big boat down some canals.

We went out for a meal this evening- I had Spaghetti Carbonara and William had a Carbonara Pizza – his pizza came with an egg in the middle, as did a lot of the pizzas.

Tomorrow’s weather is supposed to be better with no rain…..let’s hope!

We didn’t take too many pics today due to the weather.