We only had one day to look around Venice so we knew we had to get over to the main island quite early so we could see the sights we wanted to see. We were also hopeful that being surrounded by water it might be a little cooler as wind which travels over water is cooler than when it travels over land. However, the humidity was incredibly high, even early in the morning.

Since we knew the following morning depended heavily upon the accelerato line we decided to use that to travel to the main island and to time how long it would take to get to the stop at the train station. It was quite a scenic journey and is a pretty good way of seeing some of the areas of Venice you might not otherwise see as it makes many stops all over the island. By the time the bus pulled in at the train station stop the heat had soared to amazingly high temperatures and we knew by midday it would be into the 40’s again. We took another boat back from there to the Saint Mark’s square stop so we could look round Doge’s palace. The entry for Doge’s palace was €13 and states that you’re not allowed to take bags or cameras in with you however it seems they don’t actually mind as I took my bag in okay, and my camera. Most places in there specifically state that you’re not allowed to take photographs, however you can in the courtyard so I was able to take a few photographs there. You can also cross the “Bridge of Sighs” into the prison to look around the cells there. From the outside you couldn’t actually see the bridge when I went due to them doing some repair work.

The ticket also gave us entry to Museum Corro which was full of artwork, sculptures and some armoury from their local history. We did have a quick lunch at the museum but they charged for being seated so we instead chose to eat outside on the steps overlooking Saint Mark’s square. It was pretty much some of the worst service imaginable and the food wasn’t even that good. If you ever visit Venice then I wouldn’t recommend eating at the museum.

Our next task was to find the Rialto bridge. It wasn’t too hard to find but it is easy to go wrong and have to backtrack due to there only being bridges in certain places. It’s probably one of the safest places in the world to get lost in, and it’s not really a problem, but the weather as I have said before, was very warm and so it did make it hard work. The Rialto bridge is pretty amazing – it is wide and lined with shops; it’s kind of reminiscent of the way the London bridge used to be many years ago (before the houses and shops were demolished in 1762). It was also a good opportunity to look for souvenirs as the majority of shops there are aimed solely at tourists.

Our final stop of the day was at the Venetian Arsenal which has long been a shipyard for the Venetian military and is still in use today. Unfortunately we couldn’t go in to look at the historic boats as it is currently in use as a naval base and had signs up to say there were no unauthorised people allowed through the doors. Still, it’s quite an impressive front to a building and was worth taking a few photographs.

Finally we headed back to Lido to have our evening meal and get suitcases packed ready for the next day’s flight. I had a pizza and the most amazing black cherry ice cream I had ever had. Whilst eating in the sun started to set, seeing this the friend I’d travelled with ran back to the hotel to grab cameras so we could take one last photo of Venice.