Venice by train: Part 3. Venice sightseeing

View from the hotel - the building to the left (out of shot) was the Scottish pavilion

Day 3: Monday 26 October
The biennale is closed on Mondays so today was devoted to sightseeing. I awoke in room 107 to pitch blackness - I discovered that when they turn down the sheets and put out the slippers at L'O, they also close the shutters outside the window. Breakfast was rather good, with scrambled eggs and tutti fruiti alongside the continental stuff - there was even an open bottle of prosecco - and look at the view I had outside, behind me in the breakfast room (photo above). Was the hotel in a former clock factory? I never found out, but there were many clockwork mechanisms in display cases. We walked to Rialto Bridge to buy a vaporetto 48-hour pass for €30 - now there's a lot of steps - and boarded a water bus to Accademia for the Peggy Guggenheim museum (my ticket €12). It's like a miniature Tate Modern, with all the major 20th century artists represented… I loved the Magrittes and Kandinskys. But I got told off for taking a photo of the No Photography sign outside the Jackson Pollock exhibition!

No photographing the No Photography sign!

We then walked past the breathtaking Santa Maria della Salute and got a vaporetto to St Mark's Square where we walked past Harry's Bar and had a sit down, coffee and cake (I went savoury and had a salad club sandwich) outside Florian, where the band was playing - well, you have to don't you!

Teege and Sam rest their weary feet at Florian

After marvelling at the square, and not going up the tower, we took the water bus to the end of the line at Lido, then right back to the end of Line 1 to the bus station P. de Roma, and back again to the hotel.

Squid in ink with polenta and some of Sam's spaghetti

In the evening we had cicchetti (don't be fooled, the guide books say these are cheap - €1 a go, but they really work out at around €3 a bite - we never did find the tomato and anchovies on toast ones like Rick Stein had) and spritz (mmm, love that Campari) overlooking the canal, under a big moon, then found the family restaurant we passed last night (Osteria Trattoria Nono Risorto) and Sam and I split the deal of the day: I had squid in ink with polenta and he had the spaghetti.

And so to bed…

More photos on Flickr.