Venezia

I had originally intended to spend the day in Padua doing my own thing and let the boys go on their own to Venice. I was beginning to realise though that this would have been stressful, especially for Chris who would have felt responsible for organising things. So we all caught the train from Padua to Venice - it takes about an hour. Then we caught the water bus up the grand canal from the train station. I think Venice inspired Richard and Darcy more than other cities because it is so different.

Apart from walking around the streets for a while they went to the Gallery D'Academia. I said that Richard and Darcy had to visit at least one art gallery while in Italy and it might as well be this one. They were polite about it afterwards at least, though they never asked to go to another gallery again. Chris of course got a lot more out of it. While they were doing that I went ahead by ferry to the Lido which I had never visited before. Darcy took the plunge and went for a swim in the Adriatic. The beach there was absolutely packed. We then split up from Chris as it was Sunday and he wanted to go to mass. Our plan was to visit Murano to see the glass blowing. So we talk the longest, slowest ferry route, stopped off in Burano for a wander around, then onto Murano. By the time we got there the glass-blowing was over for the day so we stayed on the ferry, bot back to the mainland and walked to the train station and then on back to Padua.