Part 1 here.

Day 2, which was Niamh’s birthday, was really excellent throughout.  We walked our feet off, but we had a wonderful tour of the Doge’s palace and amazing food.

I had a horrible time of it during Covid – most of us did in fairness – and so, like many, my mental health deteriorated catastrophically.  While I was building myself back up, I loved to watch travel videos, which included a type of long format video in which the host takes you on a live explore.  One of these channels on YouTube is I Love You Venice.  It’s less active now than it used to be, as guides are now active again post-Covid.  Anyway, one of the hosts was Igor Scomparin (note that the link may fail at first, but try it again in your browser and it should be ok).  I always loved his upbeat style and his knowledge of Venice is superb, so as part of Niamh’s birthday present, I organised a skip-the-line-tour of the Doge’s Palace and Cathedral for a few hours that morning.

First, we asked the receptionist to turn our room temperature to 20 celsius, and then – breakfast – we made use of our voucher and had pastries and hot drinks next door to the hotel.  Really delicious, I have to say – no complaints there – and there were a good few locals present too, which is always a good sign.  We had a small walkabout, and then met Igor just off the hotel lobby.  He showed us exactly how close we were to St. Mark’s square – much closet than any route we had previously taken had suggested.  We were a little early, so we learned a little history in the southeast plaza.  Igor showed us a few graffiti on columns supporting the arcades of the building opposite.

Then it was our time to fly past the baffled people in the queue and entered the palace courtyard.  I won’t harp on about the place, suffice to say that it’s incredible.  The artwork, stairways, ceilings and art are out of this world and are a must-see.  The floors and arcades are uneven in places due to age and subsidence.  Unfortunately, I was asked to stop filming by one of the attendants at one stage, which was a pity – I saw others film unpunished, so footage (at the end of Part 3) is limited.  Also housed here is one of the most impressive displays of medieval armaments I’ve ever seen.  The Doge’s Palace is amazing, and there are other ways you can skip the queue by ordering tickets online.  You can google them easily.

Afterwards, we had a quickish stop at the cathedral – I’ve wanted to see the mosaiced Christ, as I have wanted to see the versions in Cefalù and Ravenna.  The cathedral itself looks a little eastern orthodox – unusual for this far north in Italy, I would have thought.  There were golden mosaics everywhere – it was incredible.  The Christ at the back of the Cathedral is a stupendous work.  However, it was then that I began to notice things.  It was pointed out that the floor was uneven, and parts of it actually were in small waves.  So few were looking anywhere else but up.  I began to realise that people were here for the sake of being here, and mentally box-ticking, while the cathedral was dying in front of their eyes.  And that we were part of the problem.  This was confirmed by the sadness I felt when Igor told me that the Venice council were thinking of allowing Cruise Ships back.  He told us that although 50,000 people were registered to live in Venice, only 36,000 did so, and yet the number of visitors a year is 36 million.  That is insane.  What made me saddest of all, however, is that he said he was once asked by a tourist what time Venice closed at… as if it was Disneyland. 

After that I tried to make a concerted effort to be more aware of my surroundings as I walked.  Acknowledge each water cistern I passed, and noted whether or not it had a little cat-bowl carved nearby for the cats who used to keep the rat population under control.  Looking out for a little more graffiti.  Checking out the interior of smaller restaurants as we passed by them, and even trying to listen in on a conversation or two.

Anyway – I can’t recommend Igor highly enough for a tour.  I’ll leave his details in the description box below – do consider him if you want a special tour to yourselves.  At the end of the tour, we asked him for a recommendation for somewhere to go for lunch, and he gave us criteria selection, and we finally settled on Osteria Oliva Nera, which served good food, and was in a quiet neighbourhood.  And the selection was bang-on!  Although when we got there we asked to be seated outside.  The larger table near us was chosen by what seemed to be another Irish family… the irony.  Anyway, we both had deep-fried stuffed zucchini flowers, Niamh followed that up with lasagne while I had the best pasta dish I would have in Venice – bigoli pasta with anchovies in an onion sauce.  Amazing.  The locale was so lovely too – a quiet junction near actual functional shops for locals and another restaurant. 

All done, we used the facilities, paid and we started making our way towards the Cannaregio district (or sestiero as they’re called in Venice), to check out the Jewish quarter.  We were about a quarter of the way there when I saw in Google that the little island was closed, so with expectations properly set, we ambled our way there.  We hit the main street and started walking.  We soon tired of that, as there were people everywhere (yes, we are part of the problem), and tried to make our way there through back alleys or walking alongside canals.  The latter is rarely available – and we found that exploring alleys was fun and led us to some wonderful views, but they often led us to dead-ends, and so we were inexorably drawn back to the main Corso.  At least we got a glimpse of Venice’s leaning tower!

Out of pure coincidence, I checked the map to see if I could find the famous Libreria Acqua Alta.  I was hoping to see if I could employ the doctrine of mindful tourism here, but my God it was arguably one of the most disappointing things we did in Venice.  Now, this is no discredit to the owners and runners of the bookshop.  Had Venice been a normal, functional city serving its population, it would still be no doubt frequented as a nice quirky bookshop with a decent stock of new and antiquarian volumes.  What actually greeted us were two circular queues – one to enter and leave by (separate doors), and then at the bottom of the shop, past the mini gondola filled with books, is another circle where you got to climb the steps made of books and take a photo as quickly as possible, and climb down the other side. Always on the move.  Never have I felt more like a shepherded animal.  Finally, you can exit through a door if you don’t have anything to buy, or go up to the cash desk if you do.  I marvel at those who had actual book purchases, because if there’s one thing you need in a bookshop when you’re browsing it’s time – and you simply had none.  We were walking out, when a group of tourists who entered through the exit were given out to and made go back around to the front door.  And in fairness, the owners have to do this.  There is not much space there, and the bookshop would fill up extremely quickly otherwise.  Anyway – it wasn’t a great experience.

Afterwards, we stopped in a large square, which contained the old famous hospital Saints Giovanni e Paolo.  One of the Rosa Salva bars associated with our hotel, for which we had a discounting voucher – but this one also had artisanal gelato, so we indulged, and it was really nice – and needed.  When done we trudged onwards.  I would say we made it to within 5 or 6 blocks of the closed ghetto when we released that we were both footsore.  We made our way back.  It took a long time, but it was enjoyable exploring more nooks and crannies, even if some of them were rammed with people.

We got back to the hotel and aahhh’d in satisfaction at the coolness of the room, and had an hour’s rest before we headed out for Niamh’s birthday celebration meal at our sommelier friend’s recommendation: Osteria Da Carla.  It was only a short walk.  It’s a nice, intimate place, with excellent food.

We had an aperitivo each and both ordered a glass of wine.  For starters, Niamh had tortelloni (cappellacci as they were called on the menu) stuffed with rabbit, and I had deep fried sardines.  Afterwards, I had linguine with clams and bottarga – the clams were already out of their shells so I could have at them immediately.  It was a beautiful plate of pasta, but I think I would give the nod just about to the anchovy dish I had earlier.  Niamh’s, however, was a pure winner – Iberico pork fillet wrapped in bacon.  Perfectly cooked, a little pink in the middle and tender.  Desserts… Niamh had fancy tiramisu and I had a wonderfully inventive home-made cream egg, where the white was ricotta and the yellow pureed mango – delish.  A lovely place all in all for a fine meal in a romantic environment.

Afterwards, we had a little walk about town, stopping off in Il Salotto di San Marco for another drink (see Part 1). There was a table of 6 next to us, and the kitchen/bar had prepared squid ink risotto.  We were the only other people there (the place is tiny), so rather than see us go without food, they gave us a half-plate between us to try.  This is a wonderful example of Italian hospitality!  We chatted briefly with the locals, and it was just one of those special moments.

and that squid ink risotto I mentioned earlier. Anyway – and so to bed.  I tell you, getting up with that 20c setting was a great deal chillier than we expected, so we asked them tap it up to 22c for our last night – would it be the goldilocks temperature we needed?  We’d see.

Part 3 here!

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