Venice by night and Venetian dinner: Italy

It was afternoon when we reached Italy. Our guide told us that we will have a few hours free before we go to Venice for dinner so me and AS with a few others from our group decided to go on a shopping spree. I was so happy to find a mall close to the hotel. And we ended up buying 2 small suitcases for hand carry on the plane. As we travelled we had bought lots of souvenirs so we were running out of space on our suitcases. I am so glad we bought the suitcases as I was able to do my own shopping and fill up the extra space they allowed. I ended up buying 4 pairs of shoes and 4 dresses. I was so happy that we went to this mall and happier still to find dresses and shoes in my size.

After shopping we went back to our hotel and got ready to go for our dinner trip. We took the bus till the port and then caught a motorboat to go to San Marco. The islands looked so beautiful with old buildings and lots of history. The guide was on a microphone explaining to us what each of the building were.  It was evening by that time and the sunset over the water was beautiful.

We walked to St. Mark’s Square, passing famous buildings, small bridges and inner canals to a typical Venetian restaurant for an aperitif including wine, mineral water and coffee before the four-course dinner. We had bread roll and butter on the table along with wines. We were seated next to a Canadian family and a couple from Brisbane. It was a fun night. The first course was a tomato and goat cheese platter followed by pasta. By then I was really full but main was still to come. For the main I chose chicken and AS had fish. Finally we were served homemade tiramisu as desert. It was really yummy but I couldn’t finish mine as by then I was stuffed like Turkey on thanksgiving. I am not a big fan of 3 course meals; imagine my state when it was four.

After dinner we had some time to explore the area. So we went to St. Mark’s Square and enjoyed listening to the musicians who were playing beautiful music in nearby café. From there we went for a walk and saw beautiful Venice with a cool breeze blowing in from the lagoon; the lanterns coming on, the peeling plaster glowing in the moonlight.

The evening was balmy and we felt quite relaxed, enjoying lovely Italy. There were people in the gondolas enjoying a nice evening ride and some of the shops selling masks and souvenirs were still open. We decided to wait till the next day to shop around. There were still lots of people out enjoying the music and dinner.  It was a really nice evening and I was so happy to have my husband next to me.

We stopped over at Rialto Bridge which is one of the famous bridges in Venice that cross the Grand Canal. In this area, which originally housed the food market, there has always been a canal crossing, at first, a simple bridge of boats, and later a real wooden bridge, made from two inclined ramps with a mobile section in the middle, in order to allow the passage of ships.

Rialto Bridge, a stone arch, was constructed under the supervision of Antonio da Ponte, between 1588 and 1591. We took a few photos there and it was almost time for us to board our boat to go back to the hotel.

On the way back to the mainland, it was a beautiful ride and I could see the beautiful place fading out on the horizon. I was really excited to come to Venice again the next day for proper tour and world famous gondola ride.

 Please click here for more photos.