We woke up to sunshine!  The lagoon view from our windows was sparkling and we were ready to go go go.

We started with a nice long walk through the Castello neighborhoods to the Giardini and the Biennale of Architecture.

Castello laundry

shadows

The displays were not all that interesting to me but Ken really enjoyed it, urban planning being right up his alley. Some of the country exhibits were appealing and interesting but I mostly just enjoyed being in that space and the park like setting.

Canada was about mining

“Therapy” by the Scandinavian countries made me chuckle

Then we walked all the way on the beautiful riva to San Marco. We stopped and had a quickie lunch (my first tramezzino of the trip) at a place on the water and  enjoyed the view.

Linda, taking it all in.

I was able to book our skip-the-line tickets for the basilica on my phone before we left the Giardini so we waltzed right in. There was a small film crew in there so, lucky for us, the lights were on.  The mosaics are still a thrill to me and, of course, the floors.

just one of so many beautiful square meters

We also went upstairs but the construction has the side of the horses towards the canal blocked off so the views were not so fantastic as usual.

While Brenda finished up in the museum, I started calling places for dinner reservations.  No luck!  Even in late October, you need to book in advance.  A little bit frustrated, we decided coffee and gelato would fix everything.  So, we walked from San Marco over the Rialto to Cafe del Doge.  We sat in there for a good little rest before taking the traghetto back towards home.

on the traghetto

Gelato at Ca d’oro was as good as I remember even though they’ve remodeled and it looks all slick in there now.  We stopped for some wine and Ken took it home.

I didn’t want Linda and Brenda to miss the Gesuiti church, our neighbor, so we popped in there.  I never tire of that splendor and the fascinating marble work.  How did they do that in the 1700’s???

green and white marble

Linda went home while Bren and I went back to our local Formaggio shop for some prosciutto etc. for dinner.  We all ate the left over soup, salad, bread and salumi for dinner.  And, wine, of course.

We definitely kept our feet in the street today!