Rest day in Venice

The early bird avoids the tourists and heads over to Venice at 7am on the commuter boat, past a very expensive cruise arriving with the tug boats.

The No 1 vaporetto crosses the lagoon from the Lido then pootles down the Grand Canal, so I had a lovely sightseeing cruise for €7.50 on an empty, if rather chilly boat.

I hopped off just past the Rialto bridge so that I could take the cliche photo and then walked back across it, still delightfully quiet and peaceful.

Next obvious tourist stop was St Mark’s Square which was deserted apart from two brides doing photo shoots as you do..

I was getting hungry, just for a change, so headed down some back streets and found a cafe serving breakfast, next to a gondolier getting his boat ready and a school tucked away on a side street with parents carrying the smaller children’s bags as they walked to school - no ridiculous Range Rover school run here!

I walked all the way back to Giardini along the waterfront with beautiful views everywhere, definitely a much better experience of Venice than walking with a rucksack through heaving crowds getting hopelessly lost 37 years ago.

That was then enough touristing for me and I hopped back on the vaporetto to the Lido in time for a cheeky second breakfast at the hotel and a snooze before Katie arrives.