After having a couple scorching days in Rome and some warm weather in Athens/Santorini we hit perfect (seasonal) temperatures when we returned to Venice. On our last night in Venice we decided to again dine “al fresco” along the Grand Canal. The Rialto was only a 5 minute walk from our Pensione so deciding where to dine was pretty easy.
After having the requisite apertivo we dove into dinner. And of course, wine. We sat there eating dinner watching the water taxis and vaporettos go by. All the while the gondoliers dodged back and forth across and along the canal. It’s quite a scene. Every type of land vehicle has a water equivalent in Venice: Police boat, Fire boat, supply boat, construction boat, laundry boat, personal boats and the big busses of Venice, the Vaporettos. With Rialto being a major stop we had two main vaporetto stops right across the canal from where we sat.
One dock for upstream boats. One dock for down stream boats.
We were under the first red awning along the water.
As we sat there eating dinner the dark clouds moved in and soon it was raining hard. Sitting under the canopy eating lasagna and drinking wine as the rain came down. The nearby gondolier dock was soon a flurry of action as the boats were brought in and covered up from the elements. A couple gondoliers hung out under the Rialto Bridge with their passengers but finally had to make a run for it and moor their boats.
As we finished dinner we had a decision to make. Dash through the rain back to our pensione or Plan B.
We went with Plan B……. Desert!
This last picture illustrates some of the damage we did over our two hour “apertivo/dinner/desert”. This was our most expensive dinner on the entire trip but the memories of sitting there watching Venice go by as the rains came in is truly priceless.
Best of all, after our two hour dinner, the rains had stopped and we were able to walk back to our room without even getting wet. Another magical day in Venice.
Bellissimo!
The Traveling Hippogators 