Venezia - day 1

Our first day in Venice and the sun was shining.

Camping for 3 nights at Camping Serenissima. A quiet park like camp with lots of trees for much desired shade. 

A slow start but we made a last minute rush and caught the 10 am bus. Holy heck, it pulled up and I thought there's no room in there as we and 10 others at our stop pushed our way in. Squashed like sardines. Then at each stop on the  30 min ride 1 person would get off and 3-10 more would enter, so we just squished in further. 

The bus stop is at a main walking entrance into Venice (no cars within the city). So you walk over a bridge and voila - we are there. Just as I had imagined. Not too crowded and busy, so we spent the next 7 hours wandering about, visiting churches, snacking, resting on cool shaded marble steps, as well as treating ourselves to a late fancy lunch of a devine octopus salad, seafood pasta, salad and cocktails. My bellini was perfect. 

We purchased opera tickets for the following night (will need a true Italian day with a break in the middle if I'm to be heading out at 9 pm).

I visited the Basilica Di San Marco. Heather and I entered together, but she bulked on the stairs and I assumed she was not happy with the steep narrow steps with crowds going both ways (but actually she had realised this wasn't the church we had planned to explore, in our attempts to make the euro go as far as we can). I hoped I could locate her at the entrance on my return and continued up unaware of my mistake until I was in a oneway narrow queue for the museum entrance.  But nonetheless was awestruck by golden glowing domes of fine mosaics, Flemish tapestries from the 14th century, and large frescoes painted in the16th century along with spectacular views from the balcony looking across the Piazza San Marco. 

The day was hot (thank goodness we were not to be here in the height of summer), and we did grow weary, but keen to see as much as we could. the first half of our day we struggled with maps and the occasional sign as we ambled up narrow lanes and over bridges. Heather was becoming frustrated that we may fail to locate our planned sights, but then we both recalled the guide books reassuring advice that one is likely to get lost here and so just enjoy. But thanks to team work we managed to get a beginning sense of location, and then at the end of the day heather had the brainwave to use the gps map on my phone. Easy peasy. Were left feeling better prepared for day 2.