Leaving la Serenissima

We’ve only been two nights in Venice and I’m unwilling to leave. This is the view from breakfast this morning, with the first gondolas taking their customers into the Grand Canal past the ornate front of Chiesa della Salute. The noise is extraordinary - think of a main road, take away the noise of cars, add several marine diesel engines and top it all either the sound of shouts, songs and laughter. Underpin it all with the rhythmic slap and gurgle of the lagoon - a noise that we were aware of in our first-floor bathroom as it interacted at a distance with the plumbing...

And now we’re off again, though as I write our ship is still moored at the port of Venice. We sail at 11.30pm , though right now I doubt I have the stamina to wait up for our sailing.

My extra photo, if I can upload it here, is of a real gondola jam in a narrow canal very close to our hotel.