That's Amoré...Venice wanderings

Once we had left Salerno, we enjoyed a much needed sea day. Relaxing on deck, catching up on some TV from home all made for a lovely rest. Although our cruise has an awesome itinerary, the pace was becoming relentless and it was nice not to have to be up early and rushing off to see the sights.

In the afternoon of the next day, we were pulling into Venice.

The excitement onboard was palpable and cruising into the harbour certainly was a treat.

Once the cruise was docked and cleared, we made our way off the ship and collected our vaporetto (boat taxi) tickets, and we were off!

It was quite a little journey into San Marco's Square, but the scenery was spectacular.

Once we were on land, we set off wandering.

St Mark's Square

Venice is gorgeous, with lots of little cute little nooks and vistas everywhere.

Eventually we went looking for somewhere to indulge in a fabulous Italian meal. We were standing out the front of a little restaurant in a little back street looking at the menu when an elderly elocal gent came up to us and said this was a great place with very authentic Venetian food. I joked with him that perhaps he had shares in the place, but thanked him for his recommendation.

We were very glad we did.

Much deliciousness ensued.

Then we decided to wander back to San Marcos Piazza, getting hopelessly lost in the meantime, making our way back to the ship.

As we remained docked overnight in Venice, we made our way back to shore the next morning for another wander and to pick up some Venetian gifts.

The masks are incredible!

That night when we returned to the ship and steamed out of Venice, they had a masquerade party, which we went down to enjoy for a little while:

But I digress, that morning, we made our way through the streets and over the canals and decided to sit in a cute little piazza we found for a delicious Italian coffee.

We ordered 2 cappuccinos. ...This is what was brought out to our table:

As has been pointed out to me, who am I to argue with an Italian? Wine it is, then.

Whilst we were sitting there enjoying our morning, we watched a funeral procession exit one of the churches and deliver the coffin to a gondola for its final trip down the canal. (Out of respect, we quietly stood as the procession passed, but did not take photos).

We really loved our little visit to Venice, particularly as we did not do any of the tourist things, but just enjoyed being there.

The gelato wasn't too bad there either.

I hope to visit Venice again, amongst other parts of Italia, in the future and spend a week in a little apartment, visiting all the nearby islands and really getting to know this amazing little city.