We woke up early on our anniversary all set to head out to the island of Murano for the day. It’s supposed to be beautiful there and you can see them blowing glass and making vases but after checking the weather and it forecast thunderstorms we decided to stay a little closer to the hotel just in case we got caught in any downpours. Typically as we had decided not to go to Murano the weather stayed as glorious as it had been all holiday.
Instead we spent another day getting lost in and around the beautiful streets of Venice. We headed back to the hotel about 4:30pm as we wanted to head back out early and enjoy our gondola ride in the evening sun. After picking up a bottle of chilled prosecco we climbed into the gondola, which was double parked so we had to climb over another one to get to it, which was not easy in a maxi dress!
Once seated comfortable Alan popped the cork on the prosecco, much to the delight of a couple above us on one of the bridges. They were cheering and clapping. For about 10 seconds I felt famous and even waved to them as we started to move off! The gondola ride was fantastic. It was so relaxing being sailed about drinking our fizz as the evening sun hit the buildings, making Venice look even more beautiful. You get to see a different side to Venice on the Gondola, a more peaceful and tranquil Venice. Our ride lasted about 45 minutes and we took in various sites including the grand canal and the rialto bridge and as we neared the end of the journey the fizz ran dry. I have to say drinking it that quickly it did go straight to our heads and made us a bit tipsy. I know this having been back through the photos and seen some shots we took outside the basilica after a bride and groom had finished with their photographer.
We then headed back to the Carnegie area for dinner. We had read about a steak place on a barge moored on one of the canals that is supposed to be good but as it was a Saturday when we got there it was too full. So instead we headed to a restaurant recommended to us by a friend who had recently visited Venice. The restaurant was called La Vecia Cavana and we were seated at a table in a little side street and given a complimentary peach bellini. We were so hungry by the time we got there that we devoured the fresh bread a butter before enjoying a lovely meal. The four cheese gnocchi to start was delicious as was the steak. We were so stuffed after all that that we could not manage the nutella crepe we had earmarked for the way home. All in all it was a fantastic first anniversary!