My turn to start - Mick here. The last time we were in this neck of the woods we missed out on the Scrovegni Chapel, Giotto's great masterpiece. We decided that we'd take a break from our home in the Venetian lagoon for the day and head to Padova to see it this time. If you want an experience of overblown bureaucracy, obey all the advice and book your visit on line. If ever there was an experience of all heat and no light this was it! It took a good half hour, ...

Anne starts today's blog: Today was an exciting day to be in Venice. As we headed out after eggs on beautiful grain toast for breakfast, we noticed that the canal had intruded a little onto the land and water was lapping very close to our main outside door. The people next door would need to walk through it to get out. We had another look for a good glass shop recommended by a friend but failed to locate it. We did locate the most expensive coffee to date - in t...

Anne at the keyboard: Restocking the fridge was needed so we walked around to the closest supermarket with the handy trolley provided in our very comfortable flat and did this quite quickly. We then stopped at Bar Brasilia for due cappuccini which cost only 3 Euro, so a good deal. We did as the locals do and stood at the bar. As the weather forecast promised sun after lunch we decided to take the ferry to Burano which is 40 minutes from Fondamente Nove which is...

Mick again. The body clock seems to be closer to adjustment as it was all of 5 am - and still dark and quiet except for the gentle sound of the odd marine diesel - when I woke today. Big plans. We had located a group called La Bussola - The Compass- which provides free walking tours of Venice every day. Full of confidence we put ourselves down for both the morning and the afternoon three hour tours. Very Gilligan's Island, no? En route to the pickup point we m...

Mick on duty again. Our sleep patterns were a bit disrupted last night- residual jet lag and what I hope is the tail end of the cold I've had for a fortnight. I gave up on sleep about 6 and managed some communications with our host in Rome and the SMH cryptic before the day got under way properly. A few reflections on our first time staying in Venice - our previous visits were day trips. If someone said: "Hey. I've got a great idea. Let's build a city in a swam...