Today we decided to take it easy and stay locally. We went to St.Mark Square and went inside the Basilica, which was incredibly beautiful. We went to the top, overlooking the Square and saw a wedding couple posing for pictures.
Afterwards we went back down and decided to go up the bell tower opposite the Basilica. Once at the top we took in the whole of Venice, plus the two islands next to it. It was lovely to look from a high view, Rory said that everytime we go somewhere new it seems we have to go up the tallest tower in that area!
It was a consequence that when we sat down at one of the windows, out of the six or eight bells in the tower, the one next to us started ringing so we had the full blast of the ringing...not that it mattered to us anyway!
Afterwards we decided to be corny and take a gondola ride around Venice! From visiting the Information Centre on the first day, the person told us that it would be about €80 for a 40 minute ride. We went up to the gondola place and the man told us it would cost €200 for an hour! We didn't have that much money on us so we said we would go to a cashpoint. The man tried persuading us by lowering his price down to €150 for an hour and that he would stop at a cashpoint for us on the way. We told him thanks but no we will go to the cashpoint ourselves. After walking away, about halfway back to the Square, Rory was tapped by a different man asking if we were interested. His offer was €130 for 45 minute. Not much difference we thought, and told him the same cashpoint excuse. Towards the end of the square, Rory was tapped again, giving him a fright as he wasn't expecting another person to be talking to us! This time the man offered €80 for 40 minutes, we thought thought this is more like it and took his offer! Good thing we had the information beforehand otherwise we would have wasted an extra €120!
The gondola boat ride was lovely and very relaxing, we passed many gondolas on the way and I found myself wondering how much they must have paid for theirs! The man riding the boat was very good, and deaf aware, he would tap Rory and make good eye contact while pointing at all the important buildings as we passed.
We then had tea in a posh tea room and then went back to our lush big hotel room to get ready for a nice meal in the evening. After our meal we went for a walk around St. Mark's Square to see the lights at night.
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