After leaving the snow behind in St.Anton we headed south to Venice. We have both visited the city before so we had a pretty go idea of what to expect. We booked a budget hotel located on the island of Ledo, a beach town type island that separates Venice from the sea.
The first day was spent in Venice checking out all the main attractions like Piazza San Marco and St. Marks Basilica in addition to doing some window shopping.
Most of the day was spent walking around just enjoying the city, trying to get lost and people watching. A highlight of the day was having a great Cafe Americano overlooking the Rialto Bridge. Lunch was also a cool experience. Right by the fish market, a restaurant was serving calamaris with mais in the middle of the square. The guy serving the food was yelling all sorts of things out and drawing quite the crowd. Being in Austria for so long we where craving some good sea food, so the meal really hit the spot. That evening we headed back to our island, chilled out at the rooms for a while and later had some great pizza in a garden patio restaurant. The night ended on the beach with a bottle of wine watching the ships roll by.
The next day we decided to explore the island of Lido. So we rented some bikes and took a ride around the place. It was fairly small so it was not hard to see the whole place in a few hours. With beach on one side and Venice on the other it was a cool thing to do. As well, at times you would have thought you where in the Italian countryside the way the roads and buildings where. That afternoon we hopped on the vaporetti and headed over to Venice once again. There was nothing more we really needed to accomplish in the city, so we bought some cheap silk ties and had a tasty dinner. It started raining that evening, but we took in in stride.
The next day we left the island at a leisurely pace and got on the train to Florence.