Today’s tour of St Mark’s piazza, which included a (very) brief history of Venice, the Doges, their palace, the Campanile and the buildings around (and inside) the Basilica was preceded by a private boat trip from the train station, taking a different route to the Vaporreto.  This gave a spectacular views as we approached the piazza.

The tour was fantastic; as well as the obvious sights, we were taken further into the heart of Venice and saw, for example a palazzo now known as “The Snail” due to the added feature added after both wings had been built.

The other interesting feature of our tour was that it was trying to get around the piazza, not just because of the tourists, but because we experienced aqua alta.  I had not expected to see this in September and was surprised by how deep it was.  We had to walk around on temporary boardwalks, which quite narrow for people trying to walk in both directions.

We viewed as much of the Basilica as we could and by three o’clock needed sustenance.  After a wonderful pizza, we meandered around parts of Castello and San Marco, disappointed that the church of La Pieta and the Vivaldi museum were closed (simply as it was Monday – we’ll go back tomorrow) but we did discover the church where he was baptized.