Dan thought he could probably lead us around Venice with his knowledge of the Assassin's Creed map. Dan was wrong. We got lost within the first couple of hours of being there, and it didn't help that our map had no road names and those that did had no road signs to help. In Venice, every street is a backstreet, and some paths lead straight into the canal. Dead ends give no notice. We made our circuitous way to San Marco, pausing to look at the water, the old-world buildings, and sparkling jewellery in shop windows.
After all the claustrophobia-inducing, narrow alleys of Venice, Piazza San Marco's vast open space was a surprise. On one side, the basilica towered over a long queue of people waiting to go in. Shops lined two sides, and one corner of the square led to the sea.
We had a little sit-down in the shade, and Lucy, Dan and Mitch bought some gelato ice cream from a kiosk in a restaurant. We looked in the windows of all the shops along the perimeter, admiring the expensive Murano glass ornaments. By this point Lucy, of course, needed a wee but refused to pay for the public toilets so we bought our entrance to the Doge's Apartments where there were loos. We then made our way around the tour route, through gilded rooms with dark carved ceilings with paintings on the walls. We saw portraits of doges; globes; maps; furniture; a range of weaponry; and the dungeon prisons, accessed via the Bridge of Sighs. We were there for some time, and although we'd planned to go back and cook at the campsite, we ended up eating in the centre. We picked a little restaurant, which was not that great and charged us a bomb for bread and drinks.
Done eating, we took a promenade along the waterfront and then got our bus back to the chalet.
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