To enable us to have the most amount of time in Venice while still being able to return to the boat on time, we started our trip into Venice early. We were up, off the ship and at the Rialto Bridge 9am. This timing was good for several reasons – we got to experience 'peak hour' and since we had decided to not partake in breakfast on board, we were able to have breakfast near the Grand Canal (twice).

Our first breakfast was a typical Italian one, coffee and a pastry eaten while standing at the café bar while surrounded by other people do the same thing . I’m sure the coffee we were served was delicious, however as someone who doesn’t really do coffee the deliciousness was a little lost on me.

Since it was still quite early tourist wise, we used the opportunity of having very few tourists on the Rialto Bridge to take some photos – the Rialto Bridge is one of four bridges that span the Grand Canal and is the oldest bridge across the canal. Once the obligatory photo a top the bridge was done, proceeded to the nearby fruit market where several large tomatoes were ogled.

Next stop was a stroll through the streets to see if we could locate the hostel where everyone (i.e. me, Mum and Peach) seems to stay when in Venice. While we didn’t find the actual hostel entrance, we did find the jazz bar that was in the same square.

Having walked around for a while it was time to refuel. Breakfast two happened at a restaurant next to the Grand Canal, one up from where Peach and I had eaten previously . 15 euros later we had sat on the tables right next to the canal and had eaten a croissant each and drunk an orange juice for me and another cappuccino for mum.

Now feeling both full and a little queasy from the jam filled pastry we had both scoffed down in record speed, it was time to continue our walk around the Rialto Bridge area. As we were fine for masks, the focus of our window shopping was Murano Glass. A couple of purchases were made and then we continued our walk towards St Mark Square for one last photo op.

Before we got to the square we needed to stop at the post office to buy some postcard stamps. This was a little bit of an ordeal, as to be served you needed to get an electronic number. With the instructions being in Italian, it was only because Mum had recognised the word for stamp, that we were able to press the right button and end up at the correct window. After a wait that felt like a life time, we were served and then merrily back on our way .

A couple of photos at the square and then it was time to walk back to the Rialto Bridge to catch the water bus back to the railway station. One last trip on the people mover and we were safely back on board with a comfortable amount of time to spare.

Having not eaten for a couple of hour and feeling the sugar hit from the jam pastry we had at breakfast diminishing, we decided it was for time for lunch at the buffet… a couple of sandwiches later we were in the right frame of mind to watch the ship leave Venice. After a short delay, the ship began its trip back through the lagoon and onwards to the shores of Croatia and Dubrovnik.

Sailing out of Venice was just like sailing in, except in reverse. Many people took photos of the various landmarks and there were comments about who went where and what that particular place was like.

The rest of the day was like any other sea day, except our early start and traipsing around Venice had tired us out, so we didn’t really do much.

Fun fact:
The different coloured buildings on the island of Burano came about to assist drunken sailors (from the island) return to the right house after a night out celebrating. It would appear that there were too many incidences of people going home to the wrong house, so it was decided that each house would be painted a different colour… it’s easier to remember you live in a red house than the third from the left.