Day 43 (Sunday) Venice

A wet and cold Sunday in Venice would be pretty miserable, right? No, not at all - we've actually had a lovely day.

Being Italy, we were of course woken with the sound of church bells - and there are a LOT of churches in venice!! Not much musicality with the bells here - just a lot of noise really. The lovely Sabrina at the front desk mapped out the day for us and we headed off towards the "Accademia" where the Leoardo da Vinci exhibition is on. A couple of churches and other museums along the way and then we were to end up at the "Santa Maria della Salute" church which is acros the Grand Canal from St Mark's Square.

Had one of those magical touring moments when we arrived at a church near the "Casa del Goldoni" museum - we were completely on our own (it WAS a wet and cold morning) and walked into the church and the organist was obviously practicing for the 11 o'clock mass - just the most beautiful music in a very beautiful church and we had it all to ourselves! Just able to sit and listen to the most beautiful music.

Did the Goldini museum (he was famous as a puppetier) with displays of antique puppets. The rain continued and we called into the da Vinci exhibition - models of many of his "inventions" - hard to believe how many machines he either developed or drew for later generations to actually see working - such as helicopters and submarines.

Unfortunately the huge "Santa Maria" Basillica was closed so we took the easy way out and caught the water-bus back to base where we had a lunch beside the canal and watched the incredible amount of water traffic going past. An appropriate lunch for the day - spaghetti/seafood (sounds incompatible but is actually beautiful and becomming a favourite) and a bottle of red wine - all beside the Grand canal in Venice!! - doesn't get much better.

Our time in venice is over - off to Croatia tomorrow after a train ride to Trieste to pick up the car. Venice certainly lives up to its reputation for being absolutely unique and  beautiful.

An unforgetable experience!!

Trivia: Leonardo da Vinci (as we all know) invented some amazing machinery but did you know that the list includes: THE BICYCLE!!!; ball bearings, the chain; the machine gun, the dredge, double hull boat, flywheel; parachute; glider; screw gearing, gearshift, floodlight; piston, camwheel - and the list goes on!

Pictures:
* emergency services Venice style - the firestation
* - an ambulance
*Leonardo's bicycle - complete with chain/sprokets