Last day in Venice

We enjoyed another elegant morning breakfast at La Villeggiatura to start off the day. We weren't in any particular hurry. After two days of relatively nice, rain-free weather (we even glimpsed the sunshine upon our arrival on Saturday), it was not to be for our last day in Venice. The good news is Josh had booked advance tickets at the Accademia (good for avoiding the line), and it was a perfect day to spend indoors at a museum. Unfortunately, the Museum is undergoing an expansion/renovation of it's galleries and this made our visit less compelling. First, because several rooms are closed, the natural chronological progression of the artwork was disrupted by the circuitous path you are forced to take to visit the galleries. Second, because several rooms are closed, the most fabulous and famous paintings by Veronese were not on display at all. When Josh asked a docent about it, she was sympathetic and suggested he fill out a complaint card at desk at the front entrance. She concurred that it would make all the sense in the world to advise visitors of these issues on the website and, in fact, at the entrance of the museum itself. It is not until you've purchased tickets and are upstairs in the first gallery that a notice is posted about some rooms being closed.

Charlotte was not too interested in La Accademia -- and frankly, I can't blame her. It was not the highlight of our visit to Venice by any stretch. She had really wanted to go on a Gondola ride and we had put it off. Now that it was raining, the conditions were less than ideal. But we could ride the vaporetto (the strike was over) and get a water tour of Venice under cover (vaporettos have roofs and both indoor and outdoor seating areas). So we jumped on and headed to San Marco. At San Marco, we got off and walked a bit on Riva degli Schiavoni to get on another vaporetto headed towards Giudecca. From this boat, we had a lovely view of San Marco as well as the Punta della Dogana from the lagoon. From there we motored past Le Zattere which is a hot spot in the summer time -- lined with restaurants and bars -- and continued around past the new Calatravva-designed bride, then past the train station and back down the Grand Canale. Altogether, our boat tour around Venice was about 45 minutes. It was nice being on the water and not getting wet.

It was time for lunch and we had pretty good food at a small non-descript place around the corner from our hotel called Ai Tosi. Afterwards, we grabbed our luggage and began a leisurely walk to the train station. Much to Charlotte's delight (and mine) we took a Torghetto across the Grand Canale to begin our journey. A Torghetto is a relatively new idea in Venice, where a Gondola takes a group of standing passengers across the Canal for a fee of 50 euro cents per person. It was 3 whole minutes of standing on a Gondola and it was really fun! Then we walked up the widest thoroughfare in Venice, the Strada Nuova. It had stopped raining by now and so made for a pleasant walk. But the idea of buying "wellingtons" was still appealing enough that we stopped at a store selling the rain boots with all types of fun designs. Charlotte and I each got a pair (buy one; get the second at 50% off) and now had a real and practical souvenir from Venice.

We were very fortunate with our timing indeed. Just the week before our visit, the city was experiencing "acqua alta" -- between the rains and the high tide, the city was flooded. We still saw many of the platforms used during acqua alta (common in December) scattered around Venice's campos. We were also lucky to be enjoying an umbrella-free stroll with our luggage tow. In fact, just after we arrived at the station. It began to rain again.