Well, having the hotel’s fire alarm go off at 6:17am is a sure-fire way to get out of bed in the morning. I always thought I’d be cool in a situation like this – get my purse, phone, iPad…..oh yeah, clothes! Luckily by the time I got dressed the alarm had shut off. Perhaps an early-riser burnt their toast? Never did find out. I just made myself a couple of cups of coffee and waited for the day the start.

I booked the 2nd of my Backstreets of Venice walking tour for today. It started pretty much where my 1st tour left off, with just a tiny bit of overlap on the sites. This tour we walked mainly south and east thru the San Polo and Dorsoduro neighborhoods then north to the Rialto bridge area. We saw things like Venice’s only Banksy painting, the yard where the gondolas are built, the outside of many churches, etc. Not so many big highlights but lots of stories from a native Venetian and tips for enriching our visit.

It was bitterly cold today with a few drops of rain. Well, bitter for a warm weather girl. I hadn’t really packed a lot for this type of climate as I’ll be in the 80°’s soon so I suffered a wee bit. Luckily we kept moving… clocked over 21,000 steps today!

After the tour I checked out a couple churches mentioned in my guide book, then went down to St. Mark’s Square for my obligatory visit. It was rather disappointing considering the scaffolding scaling the church and construction in the piazza tarnished it’s grandeur. As well, the multitude of tourists and number of souvenir kiosks blocking the view made it feel rather chaotic. I’m glad I’ve seen it in more pleasant conditions.

By 3pm I was pooped as I basically been walking nonstop since 9am with just one tiny cappuccino break so I took a vaparetto waterbus for a few stops to rest my kicks then plodded back to the bus plaza for my trip ‘home’.

Walking into the hotel lobby at 4:30pm I queried the staff about where in Mestre I could get a COVID test for my cruise (I had one booked for tomorrow but all the way back in San Marco Square – basically as far as you can get from my hotel!). They sent me to a local pharmacy, so out the door again for another miles’ walk but the very nice doctor, who just happened to pop into the pharmacy at the wrong time while off-duty, helped me then and there instead of making me come back tomorrow night.

Shoes finally came off at 5:45pm and I’m feasting on store-bought salad, prosciutto & baguette, a crisp Pinot Grigio and celebrating my Negative test results; pleased that all I have to do tomorrow is laundry and repack all the items that have exploded out of my luggage. If I’m up for another Venetian visit I’ll go in the morning as a lot of rain is predicted from noon on tomorrow….