Venice is definitely sinking, even the rats are leaving…
Our last morning in Italy we decided to sleep in and get ourselves organized to checkout at 11am. We enjoyed our final breakfast in the pretty little breakfast room, our last croissants. We knew the rain was heavier this morning than anything we’d struck previously but we didn’t have to go far to realize just how much wetter it was. The arcades around St Marks square were packed with all the tourists that were in town for one wet day and didnt want to walk through the drowned square but didnt know where else to go.
We had planned to catch a vaporetto down the canal to the Museo Ca’ Rezonnico but going anywhere near the water was a logistical nightmare, dodging water filled alleys and hordes of damp day trippers, so we decided to head back inland instead of a little final shopping and then find somewhere warm and dry for lunch.
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| Nobody wanted coffee this morning… |
The Venetians seem resigned to the high water. It must be an increasing occurrence for them with rising sea levels, and they certainly seem to have the routines for dealing with it down pat. The gondolas we mostlY swathed in their protective covers, the hotels were putting up their barriers to stop the water coming in their canal landings and we sawhorses hanging out of windows pumping the water out of their drowned basements. Most of the locals were staying indoors except for the less attractive residents. Neil was walking ahead of me single file when I heard a little girl scream up ahead, then Neil exclaimed before a rat came scuttling past us. You know things must be grim when the rats are being flushed out of their dens!
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| Trattoria Sempione |
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| Warm and dry for lunch |
We stopped for a protracted lunch in lovely little Trattoria Semporia, and spent a long time looking out the window onto the canal, watching the brave (foolish?) people who weren’t going to let a little rain stop them from having their gondola ride. Neil had ordered a bottle of Prosecco to toast our final meal but it was even more appropriate when I checked my iPad and he learned that the Roosters had won the Grand Final. After our tasty seafood risotto and a couple of espressos we took another devious route back to the hotel to wait until the water was low enough for a water taxi to reach the hotel landing. In the photo below you can see our restaurant, ours was the second window from the left.
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| These people were DETERMINED to have their gondola ride… |
We figure the water taxi drivers must love the trip to the airport. They can really put their foot down and we had a wild but exhilarating trip, less than 30 minutes till we pulled up at the dock at the airport. Neil’s Priority Pass gave us entry to the Marco Polo lounge and I’m taking a final opportunity to charge the iPad with power and myself with a cappucino before we board our BA flight to London.
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| Taxi wharf at the airport |
We were swapping notes about what we’ve loved and not-so-loved in Italy. On the negative side, ill be happy to say goodbye to squat toilets, street hawkers and big tour groups ( our encounters with them have confirmed us in our belief that big organized tours are NOT our thing)
However, the positives far outweighs the negatives. The food, the people, the language, the sights, the coffee …the list of loves is a long one. Italy has been a wonderful experience for us, I don’t know if we’ll be back but you should never say never…Ciao!!