4th December 2005 (Sunday) – Venice

We woke up at about 0730hrs. We had soup for breakfast. We did something extremely romantic in such a romantic place with a memento on my neck as remembrance. We took the ferry along the Grand Canal (E10) and alighted at St Mark (San Marco). It was quite cold and we had to put on our gloves. We saw the famous Bridge of Signs, where prisoners in the olden times would get a chance to take a final look of Venice before being locked up. St Mark’s Square was FLOODED. There were raised platforms put up around St Mark to allow people to get around. Disposable boots could be bought for E10 per pair for those who want to walk in the water. We went to St Mark’s Basilica.

St Mark’s Basilica (Basilica di San Marco)
- Mosaic above door shows 2 guys carrying Mark’s coffin.
- Best mosaic shows the story of Adam and Eve.
- Facing piazza, the mosaic shows the story of Noah’s ark.
- Famous for the bronze horses

Besides St Mark’s Basilica was Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale). There were a lot of pigeons at the square. There were also street vendors selling bird feed. The pigeons would crowd around you when you feed them. We played and took pictures of the pigeons. They even sat on our heads. I had to pull my hood over my head to prevent them from pecking my head. There was a boy who was so frighten of the pigeons that he dropped his whole bag of feed onto the floor.
We made our way to Louis Vuitton and Dac left his gloves at the shop. We only realize that the gloves were missing when we were having lunch at Burger King (E7). We backtracked to LV hoping to get back his gloves but to no avail. I was very sad cos Dac’s gloves and mine come in a pair. Mine was red and his was blue.

We crossed Rialto bridge and walked around the area. I could not resist buying a packet of multi-coloured spaghetti from one of the shop. We found the La Rivetta Restaurant and ordered a plate of spaghetti with squid ink (E10). We were the only customers in the shop as we were quite early. The spaghetti tasted unique. We also bought a blowglass paper weight (E3.10) on our way across Rialto bridge and also bought a costume mask pin (E2).

We walked to Billa supermarket to stock up on groceries for the next few days. The groceries were really cheap. For eg. E0.20 for a packet of pasta. I also saw the largest jar of Nutella that I have ever seen. Could not resist taking a picture with it. The orange juice (Bravo) from Billa was the best that we tasted in Europe and best value of money. Must try!!! We went back to the hotel after that.