July 31: The Rialto Markets and St. Marks Basilica

I washed some clothes at last, last night. I wanted to hang them out the bathroom window, on the rope provided, but there were only 3 pegs. So, I had to drape most of it around the house... Rome, at least, had a fold out line!

This morning we set off to the Rialto to seek some fishy Merchants of Venice (not for a loan, though!) The markets were very colourful with wide displays of fruit and vegetables in particular. We bought some lovely fresh sardines for lunch and some bream for dinner. There were fresh snails for sale - really crawling in their tubs! At the outskirts their were stalls with tourist wares - not as nice as the little shops. Wayne succumbed to buying pastries at a confectioner. (We are not getting any thinner over here.)

Wayne's note: The pastries were "dolce tipico Venezia" - dessert pastries typical of Venice - we HAD to try them, and they were YUM! - Ciocallato filled pillows, little pistacchio confection tarts, lemon puffs, sweet coconut yummy-yums.....mmmmm...

At 3p.m. we set off for St Mark's square again. The tide was very high and the gondoliers had a job getting the pointy ends of their gondolas under the bridges. There were large puddles near St Marks, and some of the actual floor was flooded. We wondered if, while we rested, the tide was so high that it had flooded the whole square!

We queued in the hot sun to get in. Luckily it did not take too long. (Here is Eleanor having fun outside the church.)

Inside was amazing. Darker than other Italian churches we have seen, it made up for it by having extensively arched ceilings completely covered in gilded pictures. All medieval, with elongated figures and stylised haloes. The floors were just as impressive. They seemed covered with a variety of patchword quilts, except made of coloured marble rather than cloth.

We posted some cards, then went back to some delicious bream and new potatoes. Then back out for another gelato (I can recommend the kiwifruit one). We wanted to see the famous Bridge of Sighs. We sighed all right: it was almost completely obscured by scaffolding on the buildings on either side of it, and over the top of it - all blue advertising.

Back again. Some of the costume shops look a bit spooky at night.