Venice is bringing it man!!!!!!, Day17

A nice breakfast and out we go. Great to have these breakfasts built into our accommodation. Time to hit St Marks Square and buzz around here for a while. What a sensory overload. People, pigeons, couples getting married, music, coffee, massive queues to get into the Basilica, you name it. Admittedly we are getting here late morning, but the volume of people here is staggering. Its interesting that the borders of the Square itself are full of retail opportunities, with the big names again taking positions in an iconic location. They don’t want to miss anything those brand guys. Clearly they must be getting their quota of business out of this push to be where the action is. After spending some time here we move around to the back of St Marks to find the Royal Gardens, the starting point for our walking tour at 11: 10 tomorrow. We decide to have lunch and watch the action on the water. Incredible. We weave our way back to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, but we can’t find an ATM. We’ll do the Guggenheim thing tomorrow after our walking tour. We decide to do a gondola ride. How could anyone not do a gondola ride in Venice? We opt for the standard 80 Euro for half an hour ride. After late arvo, the rates go up a little, and you can add in an opera singer, a guitarist or an accordion player. Whatever. Quite a gondola industry exists here. It doesn’t take much to do the math and suss out what these guys might be making per day and per week. But hey this is the birthplace of capitalism. Double entry bookkeeping was invented around here, and Marco Polo based himself here as a merchant trader. Having said that, we did notice a number of gondoliers resting in their respective vessels as we sashayed past them. Tired capitalists? For the rest of the afternoon, we check out the Grand Canal, rustle through a few outdoor markets, grab some coffee and snack on strawberries. Back to the hotel. Out to dinner.