Third Time Lucky in Venice - Day 2

Squero di San Trovaso
Oldest working gondola boat building yard

Sorry for delay in posting the second full day of our visit to Venice.  We did so much in one day that it has taken me a very long time to catch up with all the photos I took.  But what a day we had!  And it was sunny and gorgeous the whole time. Lucky for us since the next day was rainy - we still had a great day but nothing like what we did today, here goes!

Of course, with us staying so close to San Marco, we were able to attend another sunrise.

Yes this is a full size gondola in the middle of the bookshop!

Then we went straight to the Liberia Acqua Alta, which was absolutely amazing!  Acqua Alta means high water and this bookshop has suffered from high water in the past. They have kept all the water damaged books and made interesting uses out of them, such as steps up from their virtual patio.  I have no idea how to describe that part of the building.  It is outside like a courtyard, with a high wall around it. They have taken damaged and unusable books and made steps for people to walk up and see the amazing view from this part of the bookshop.  The number of books is breathtaking, I would certainly not look forward to inventory time!  But it was so much fun to experience this place, complete with a full size gondola in the middle of the shop (how did they do that?). What fun this was and I will try to be selective in the number of photos I share here:

There were also quite a few bathtubs, great idea to protect books from water@

A bookshop complete with a gondola on the water too!

Make sure you understand the fire exit!

Books steps to see the view

This is the promised view you get from the book steps

of course I had to do this!

I did manage to find the English book section!  It wasn't very big, but I really wanted to purchase a book from here.  The two I narrowed it down to was "Grandma's German Cookbook" or "Murder in Venice", which coincidentally is a translation of a German book, or that is what the description makes it seem.  The Venice book was smaller and lighter so there was no contest!

On our way to the next stop, I talked Alan into a coffee break at Italo Didovich.  I just need to sit down sometimes - he could go on and on and on. But he has understood the need for me to have breaks.  The only problems with stopping like this in late morning everyday we were in Venice, was we never then ate lunch!  so we really only had one big meal a day! Not complaining when the "sacrifice" meant I got cake!

View overlooking Rialto Bridge and the Grand Canal

Our next stop was one I was totally unaware of but my husband had heard of it and we headed off to the Rialto Bridge.  As we arrived, we passed that and went into what looked like the entrance to a very exclusive hotel. But it was a fabulous department store!  No, this was not an early Valentine's Day shopping trip, just the means to get up to the rooftop terrace of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi!  What an amazing community service!  All are welcome to enter this fabulous department store and head right up to the roof.  Again, with the weather today, this was the perfect place to enjoy simply looking at Venice.

This courtyard outside the Rialto Market was actually
submerged the day we left due to Acqua Alta.
Being on the Vaperetto on the way to the bus station,
I couldn't get a photo of it flooded though.

I left the terrace a bit early hoping to have a bit of retail therapy, but my curiosity got the better of me. The top floor is called the exhibition hall and at first it appeared to be a store room.  There were loads of grey shoes and clothing in various styles in the four corners of the room.  When I came off the roof, I heard a background soundtrack of footsteps.  This made me look at the shoes and realise it was an art exhibit!

After asking the security guard at the door if it was ok to take photos, I enjoyed looking at the history of shoes.

What a fun exhibit it was!  Especially for someone who really does love shoes.  I wonder how many people walked by and never noticed this was a very interesting art exhibit.
I never had a chance to shop and if I am ever back in Venice, I will definitely spend more time here!

Squero di San Trovaso

Our next stop was my favourite, after Burano of course. One of the tv chefs I enjoy watching here is Gino D'Campo. He did a tv series called Gino's Coastal Escape.  The first episode was about Venice and Burano!  I hadn't even thought of going back to Venice until I saw this program! As luck would have it, we stumbled upon really decent flight and hotel prices a few weeks later so I was able to visit the places he mentioned. The oldest working gondola workshop in Venice really caught my attention, as did the idea of Ciccheti bars!  And these were our next destinations!

The back of a seat for a gondola

Directly across the canal is a Ciccheti Osteria!  I thought it was the same one Gino went to on the tv show, but it wasn't. Anyway, it was the perfect location to sit and enjoy a glass of wine and try some Ciccheti.  These are similar to Bruschetta, but much smaller and with an amazing variety of toppings.  I had worried about what I would choose but the server was very kind and told me exactly what was in each one!

I ordered a tuna and broccoli, a cream cheese and truffle and then asked her to recommend one. She suggested the codfish since that was the most popular.  Alan got a ham and cheese sandwich!  All of them were so delicious and such fun to try something new.

Wine was only £2 a glass as well.  This is another place I would factor in more time to sit and watch the world go by if we are ever back in Venice!

There were so many great view choices to share, but this one
has the island of Burano at the top!  

The day was only half done by now and we headed to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore.  The tower there has a lift that costs 6 Euro and is well worth the cost for the amazing view!  Complete with the added bonus of no other tourists to share this view!

Burano from a distance. They say the buildings are so
colourful so the fishermen could locate home in times of bad weather.
This shows how well the colours show up from a distance!

After enjoying being there, we boarded the number 2 Vaperetto to make a full circuit of its route, this would be one hour.  I sat down and rested while Alan just enjoyed Venice! The main thing I did was sleep! Funny but true!  I was worn out by this time.

One more destination and my day would be complete....I was in search of a restaurant I read about in another blog where local grandmothers make lasagna. Alan went along with me even though this location was in a part of Venice that seemed so much different from what we had seen before. It appeared older and deserted.  There was no sign of people, not even kids on the street.  I forged on and found the campo where the restaurant was supposed to be and it wasn't there.  But we did see a different side of Venice so it was not wasted time.

We did stumble upon the Arsenal though.  Took a few photos of it and then headed back to the San Marco area, with a detour at the shoreline for "blue hour" so Alan could take photos.  But once back in San Marco we found - completely by accident - a restaurant with fabulous lasagna!

This presentation doesn't do the lasagna justice! 

It was so good we were tempted to return the next night, but managed to control ourselves!

After dinner, it was time to return to our hotel and collapse!  What a glorious day!

Taxi anyone?