A lovely relaxing start to our day, up and drinking tea chatting, then a Vaperretto to the Galleria De Accademia to see more amazing art. The building itself is beautiful. They had a large exhibition by a German Artist called Georg Baselitz, it wasn’t really my thing, lots big paintings of people but hanging upside down.
After the Galleria we had a walk through Dorsoduro, lots of fab shops and wider canals, which makes the light fall differently. It’s a beautiful area. We stopped at a rather fancy place on the Grand Canal for a coffee, Hayley had a cappuccino and I opted for a hot chocolate, which was pretty much a mug of melted chocolate, thick and totally delicious! From here we visited the stunning Church, Santa Maria Della Salute, which is huge and sits at the beginning of the Grand Canal. The church is gorgeous, the windows inside are made up of a mosaic of clear glass tiles, but when the light is on them they turn pink, blue, green and mauve absolutely gorgeous. I remember being enthralled by this when I visited last time with Laura.
From here we walked to St Marks Square and as the queues were surprisingly short we went into the Basilica. Getting in however, proved to be a tad irritating. Hayley has a really small day pack, like a tiny rucksack, smaller than my handbag, but there are no backpacks allowed (although we saw quite a few inside!) so once we got to the front of the queue we had to go off down a side street and deposit said pack! But once inside all of this was forgotten. It’s stunning, quite dark, but beautiful.
After this we walked back to where I had seen my beautiful painting the day before, my luck was in and the artists son in law was there and so was my painting! The artists name is Savireo De Bello, this is an original work in chalk and charcoal. Very happy. 🥰
We then walked back to Rialto and had a slightly disappointing lunch, it was ok just not the best, but never mind. After this we went back to the apartment for a short rest then headed back out. We wanted to have a walk around the Purple area on the map (purple is Hayley’s Favourite colour!) this area is called San Croce. It was fabulous! A much less touristy area we stopped for an Aperol in Campo San Giacomo dall’Orio, where there were lots of families and children playing, a local school volleyball ball game was being played. It had a fantastic buzzy, local Friday night vibe! We walked more and stopped at a fab local Osteria and joined the locals on the street for a glass of Prosecco €2.50! It was brilliant.
We ended up back at the Grand Canal by the Train Station as the sun was starting to set, as we walked back through Cannaregio the colours were stunning.
We stopped and had a wonderful meal, Pizza with Mushrooms and Basil for me! Really yummy, some local white wine and a Limoncello, good food and great service and not a bad price. Winning!
As we were nearly home we walked past one of the poshest Spar Supermarkets I’ve ever seen! Marble colonnades and steps, wrought iron gates, marble cherubs above the door! It was unreal!! 😂
Altogether an absolutely fantastic day!! ❤️❤️
Ciao Bellas. 🍾
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