This was a really fabulous day!
The main event was the Vogalonga–a major boat race/parade. Only non motorized boats can participate. They leave from San Marco, row out around the islands and back through Venice by way of the Canareggio canal and back to San Marco. Last year there were more than six thousand rowers, about half of them from outside of Italy. The boats range from one man kayaks to huge multi person boats (I really don’t know one from another). Most of the rowers are in costume of some kind–usually matching shirts or hats and span all ages. It was festivity at the highest level. We found a nice spot just inside the Guglie bridge to sit and watch. I didn’t really get any good photos but here are a few to get the feel of it.

Sometimes it got really crowded with boats jockeying for position but it was all in good fun.

Young and old—I liked these girls in their skirts.

I think this may be our friend Nan’s boat.
We got some good panini for lunch and came home to eat and rest a bit. We set out for another long walk for the afternoon. First we went to Campo Santa Maria Formosa to check out the hotel reserved for my sister and her husband, the Ruzzini Palace. It looked great! Then we walked over the Rialto bridge through San Polo to Vizovirtu for amazing gelato. I had passion fruit with little crunchy chocolate bits. Ken had the dark chocolate with lemon/peach. Their ice cream is like none other and I love to just walk in there and let the fumes of chocolate make me swoon. (OK that’s a little exaggeration)
We came back home after doing a little grocery shopping and read and relaxed before dinner. We ate at Bocadoro–about a 2 minute walk from here. The meal was fabulous and very Venetian. There was nothing but seafood on the menu. We started with a plate of mixed lightly grilled scallops, mantis shrimp, scampi and razor clams. I love the razor clams. These were very small and sweet.
We each had a pasta–me gnocchi with spider crab. The little gnocchi were so sweet, you could really get the delicious potato flavor with the simple sauce. Ken had black taglioloni with artichokes and scallops. Both really excellent. We drank a bottle of prosecco and Ken had their wonderful tiramisu for dessert.
An ideal travel day for me!