Day 19: Venice day two

Second day in Venice, and the team was up and at em, eating a substantial brekkie of rice cake under a silken dragon motif on the wall. Yum.

We typically had missed our train, so read up on Venice and its various tours while waiting for the next one, booking a walking tour for that night. 

Seasoned as we were at this point with the Italian trains, we'd finally worked out that they never ever check tickets. So we ran for our train and daringly jumped on board last minute without visiting the kiosk first. Unfortunately, Murphy's law was golden, and this was the only ticket that got  checked our whole trip. Slammed with a 15 euro fine. Ah well, coulda been worse. Lesson learned.

We spent the rest of the day wandering and getting lost. Venice is beautiful and we just strolled around, pausing occasionally to pose heroically, creep on English speaking tours, consume gelato, etc.

Now I've noticed that when I'm travelling, I'll sometimes mistake a complete stranger (likely from another country) with a friend or family member. This had been happening t both of us constantly, but just near piazza San Marco, we spotted him: our awesome housemate Matt Connor. In Venice and he hadn't even told us. Ok, maybe not actually him, but possibly his long lost twin, complete with tattoo sleeve. 278ers, appreciate:

That mission accomplished, we returned to more heroic posing and faking random accents, though my default (aka only reliable one) is Indian. More reliable than my weird half-American accent these days actually. 

Rain was threatening, so we smugly nabbed prime spot at a restaurant's covered terrace to wait it out. And wait more. Sub par meal finished and faux pas cappuccino consumed (apparently bad taste to have a cappuccino after your meal), it still hadnt rained.  I stretched out that thimble sized cappuccino, taking about half an hour to finish it, and we realized we really couldn't hold out any longer, so left. As the rain hit. 

Luckily it didn't last long, and we sat in the piazza waiting for our night tour while I called my mama to wish her happy birthday. :)

Happy birthday, mama!!

Bridge of Sighs

Matt then reported that our night tour was only going to be us, and our charming guide Andreas, a Venetian local, took us all around the city. One of my favourite stories he told us was about a pre medieval revolutionary who had planned to murder the ruler of Venice and all his men in the doges palace in order to gain power. OK, I'll tell the story. At night, as the man and his followers made their way down a narrow alley (now packed with souvenir stands) they were found out, and a huge swordfight began. An old woman peeked down from her window and nudged her mortar and pestle off the sill, directly onto the revolutionary's head, killing him and saving the city. The nameless old woman is immortalized with a small statue, high on the wall where she once lived.

Andreas also told us about the corruption among the city's gondoliers (you needed millions of euros or the right connections to hold a coveted license), showed us many hidden alleys and architectural curiosities, including a graffiti man drawn in the 1700s and the houses of ancient guilds, and generally was good fun to be around.

Matt's attempt to right the most crooked doorway in the city

Our tour finished around midnight, and we grabbed one of the last trains back 'home.' Big day tomorrow.