We are staying in a cute little flat in the Castello area, which is about a thirty-minute amble from the main square. As we walked along the side of the canals, crossing many bridges as we went, we felt as though we were moving through the city almost unnoticed. It was a gentle start to the day, though as we approached the centre, we definitely noticed the volume of people increasing. Interestingly, many of the bridges now have ramps on them; we hadn’t expected that, but it certainly made for easier access as the streets grew busier.
Reaching St Mark’s Square, we took a moment to just soak in the atmosphere. We spotted a beautiful building with a bell on the roof, flanked by two figures that look like Roman soldiers, who strike the bell to mark the time.
The man on the left strikes the clock at 2 minutes before the hour representing time passed and the man in the right, 2 minutes after representing time to come. It is the Venician’s metaphor that when the clock is on the hour – you are in the middle of time effectively ‘be present’.
After a wander through the backstreets to find our pick-up point, we stopped at a lovely little cafe for lunch before heading back for our 3:00 PM gondola ride.
We shared the boat with another English couple, and for thirty minutes, we were treated to a completely different perspective of Venice. We stayed mostly to the quiet back canals, slipping under the bridges we had just been walking over. While the gondola tilted quite a lot to the right at times, you always have the confidence of the gondolier – they do this every day, after all. We spent a short period out on the Grand Canal itself, which was incredibly choppy, before retreating back into the calm of the smaller waterways.
By the time we headed back to St Mark’s to take in the evening atmosphere and began the long walk back to the apartment, we had clocked up nearly 16,000 steps. It’s been a day of beautiful sights and a few tired feet, but the adventure is well and truly underway
Travelling Fletchers 
Leave a comment