The day before we were to leave Assisi to drive to Venice we received a message from Carmel. Her and Ian were due to meet us in Venice the next day, but it turns out their plane out of Melbourne was delayed. This meant that they were due to miss their connecting flight in Doha through to Venice. They were told that there were no other flights to Venice for 24 hours, therefore they were to be delayed getting to Venice by an entire day. Carmel had to advise the hotel in Venice that they would be a day late and I had to rearrange a food walking tour we had booked for the four of us.

I rang the tour company to advise them that Carmel and Ian were delayed and therefore we wanted to move the tour and was told that they could not do that. This would cost Ian and Carmel $260. I had a small argument with the girl who finally said that if another 4 people booked the tour before the next day she could move us. This was the best we were going to get, so I finished the conversation saying to her "I really hope you can move us, because I'd really like to give you a great review." This must have done the trick, because the next day as we were driving to Venice she rang and advised that she was able to move us to the next day.

We arrived in Venice after a 5 hour drive from Assisi and wasted no time getting out and reacquainting ourselves with this beautiful city, starting with a prosecco in St Marks square while listening to their live classical music.

That night we found a small and very popular cicchetti bar in the backstreets of Venice. We knew it was good because there were plenty of locals inside and outside. Cicchetti is Venice's answer to tapas and the idea is to order a few small dishes and then eat them with a wine (of course) at either the bar inside the restaurant or in the street outside. We ate standing at the bar and then drank our wine outside with the locals. There were lots of young people drinking, chatting and laughing. What was great to see was that not one of them were on their mobile phones. They were actually conversing with each other. A strange sight for us these days and very refreshing to see that at least some people in the world haven't lost the art of socialising in person without electronic distractions.

The next day we again walked the streets until Carmel and Ian arrived. It was great to see them and we had some prosecco and taralli (Italian snacks) waiting for them, which we consumed while standing on the balcony of our hotel overlooking the canals with gondoliers singing opera while floating past. A perfect start to their holiday.

Ian has been working hard to learn some basic Italian for his trip and had a cheat sheet of phrases which he carries around with him. To his credit, he loves to jump right in and try talking with the locals. He told us that he had met one Italian man and while gesturing to Carmel said to him in Italian "May I present…my sealion!"

After our drinks, we took Ian and Carmel out to see the usual touristy sights of Venice. We saw St Marks square and cathedral, the bridge of sighs and the grand canal spanned by the rialto bridge. We took them to a great Venetian mask store and we each bought a mask.

We met our guide for our walking food tour and she took us around the backstreets to show us the best places to find risotto, cicchetti, coffee, cheese, wine and gelati. At a small deli, we tried cheese, truffle oil and balsamic vinegar. They also had bottles of liqueur shaped like an erect penis. I told Ian that they were for people who enjoyed a stiff drink. Comedy gold yet again.

Ian tasted some salami and then proceeded to announce to the entire group that he liked the salami because it wasn't too salty, unlike the salami in Australia, which he says is too salty because ALL of the Italians in Australia are from the south of Italy. Apart from being an entirely random statement with no basis in truth, turns out that Lidia's family are from the north of Italy. Apparently, Ian's research is based on talking to about 2 Italians in Australia that happened to be from the south. We have our Greg!

The next day we spent the entire day sightseeing around Venice. Carmel and Ian went for a tour of the Doge's Palace, which we had done on a previous visit, and they really enjoyed it. We enjoyed a lovely dinner at a restaurant called Trattoria Alla Scala and then went to see a classical music recital performed by a string septet. It featured mostly Vivaldi pieces, given that he was apparently born in Venice. The musicians were incredible and were all dressed in period costume. Unfortunately, Carmel and Ian were still jetlagged and fell asleep within 2 minutes of the start and missed the entire show.