and back again

Venice as always was beautiful and vibrant and lovely.

Our journey there was good no real delays and we arrived at our hotel about 11.30ish to cheers as we disembarked from the vaporetta. It felt like the city welcoming us but in reality it was the anuual marathon and we had to wait to cross the line to our hotel.

A quick chat to the receptionist who remembered Jayne and we went off round the corner for some lunch and some beer. LOrraine had a diet coke which made her all high and funny. After lunch we booked in, unpacked and went out to explore the city. Wondering around it now seems so familiar and we dodge the crowds on the bridge of sighs, avoid the pigeons and make our way to the little streets and canals of the back streets of Venice. We wonder and chat and sit at squares and drink expensive beer 12 euros for a pint is really having a laugh at our expense. We play guess the nationality and I find I am very good at spotting Americans. Sleepily we wonder back to the hotel and nap for an hour.

Refreshed we get ready to go out for a meal and go to the Pyramide which is where Jayne and I went last February. Very nice food and not expensive. Salads always so fresh and bright, More wine and we wonder back to St Marks square to listen to the music and dance and sing under the moon. San Marco is such a beautiful and romantic square with lovers dancing to the little quartets and rose sellers trying to make a living.

Jayne has been in touch with Roberto and we go to pub called the Shark which makes us laugh as it reminds us of home. A gorgeous Italian woman who is with a male companion talks to us and tells us she lived in London for 15 years. She laughs at the idea of us coming to meet someone who we met here but soon Roberto comes in and she and he briefly chat. He is all charm and kisses and welcomes and he sits next to Jayne but wants us to go out into the square to meet with his friends. This does not sound appealing to me as I am warm and cosy and remember the cold nights of last September sitting in the square with nothing more than a tin of peach tea between us but we toddle off when he reassures us we will be inside somewhere warm.

We meet his friends Marco and Guieseppie and because nothing is open go back to the Shark. We have a good time chatting and laughing and Marco is clearly smitten with Lorraine who he says only looks 25!! Or was it 35? As we leave the pub when it closes a group of English people talk to us. They are from Bristol and we talk about accents, Ashton Court and posh areas and stuff...its all very jolly.

We walk back in the moonlight and its obvious Roberto wants Jayne to stay with him but her eyes plead with us not to leave her. The others fall away and we get to the hotel and after Jayne kisses him she comes in to join us. We are a bit noisey chatting and laughing about our incredibly long day and eventually fall asleep to the sound of the vaporetta stops banging against the wooden posts. Such a soothing comforting noise.

The next morning and it starts cloudy but you can see and feel the sun is trying to break through and its not cold. The noise and bustle from outside the window is glorious with ships passing, vaporettas beeping and tour guides telling their groups about the lovely city.

We have breakfast at the Arsenal and saunter off to find the Rialto and our square. We also get some shopping on the way. I buy a necklace for Fiona and some gloves for myself.

Eventually after hours and miles of walking and getting lost but thats all part of the Venice experience we find the square only to see the bar is closed and everything looks quiet and not quite the same.

We wonder down and find a little Trattoria alongside a small canal and have the most glorious pastsa, very simple but gorgeously tasty. We eat and drink and watch workman on their boats. When we take some photos one of the women from next to our table offers to take a picture and we get chatting. They are Pattie and Terrie from Calafornia. We chat and laugh and share our wine and get quite noisey. They have been on a cruise and felt quite isolated. They are off to London tomorrow for a short stop. We offer to take them to the Shark and walk off via Rialto where they stop to shop. We also get involved in other peoples photo's including a group of Turkish men.

There they are innocently posing by a bridge when Terri askes if they would like her to take the photo and they agree, we all jump in the photo and pose with them. They laugh and another one wants a photo so we pose again. We all laugh and chat and the tall man says he is a lawyer and I think he says what the others do as well. They all look very turkish with big moustaches and lots of grins. We move along to another square where a duo is playing jazz, suddenly Jayne grabs one of the Turks and does a dance with him while we all fall about laughing. The lawyer suddenly gets worried and says its too intimate shakes our hands and they walk away smiling, I am sure I can see them deleting the photo's off their cameras before their wives see them.

We carry on walking and shopping although Terri is finding the walking hard as she is only wearing flip flops and I joke that Americans are used to driving everywhere. The walk is made longer by Jayne taking us on a short cut which involves lots of bridges and narrow streets packed with tourists but eventually we find ourselves back at the Arsenal, there is now no time to go to the Shark afterall as Roberto will be meeting us before he goes off to work.

Patti and Terri have to stop for gelatino and we think they are going to give us the slip and sit at the bar we had breakfast at. Roberto comes over and says Mumamia at the Americans, 'too much gelatina' but he is as usual very gracious and chats to them when they come over.

We spend a nice time chatting and drinking and the Americans eat some of Roberto's toast which makes us English gasp at the greediness. We arrange to go to Roberto's for dinner and he toddles off to work while Jayne tells the Americans all about her complicated love life. We show pictures of children etc and Jayne throws in a pic of Markipoos cock for shock value, Lorraine feels left out of shocking stories after I talk of Mr V and his gorgeous kisisng and how I find out I am not just the other woman but infact the other other woman and she starts inappropriately saying how she lost her parents young. This reminds Terri of how she lost her own mother only this year and startst to talk with tears in her eyes when Lorraine who is already bored with this coversation mimics a phone ringing and asks whose it is, this is cringeworthy stuff.

We have to go back to get ready for dinner and Jayne and Lorraine show them the way while I who have also now go bored with them go and have a shower and start to get ready.

We have less than an hour but just make it in time at Roberto's restaurant and sit in the garden area which is covered over by a vine, no real weather protection and we gradually get colder as the night wears on. I get cross with Lorraine as she insinuates that we are all tense including me and actually I was very relaxed and tell her to stop staring at me as its pissing me off. I wish people would not think they know what is in my mind better than I do myself.

An old Italian man comes over to our table and at first he is quite sweet with his handholding and kissing hands but he starts to get very lecherous and I strain a tendon trying to resist him pushing my hand down on his knees or somewhere else for that matter!

We run out and off to the square after finding that the Shark is shut. Jayne gets Justine to look at us on the web cam and its a strange feeling knowing you are being watched hundreds of miles away.

We meet with Roberto and then Marco comes over and we get taken to a modern bar where Lorraine feels sick which is challenging as there is only candles in the toilet. We sit there and chat for a bit and I stick sticks into Jayne to get her to practice making sex noises. Lorraine wants to go for a walk with Marco which I think is asking for trouble, she is leading him on and anyway poor Kyle and what about their marriage, she has a good marriage so why risk it for a bit of silliness?

We walk back to the hotel and I feel like some old pensioner being dumped off and am cross with Lorraine as before the holiday she told us not to do the thing she is now doing, anyway its up to her and I go in without saying goodnight to anyone feeling cross and tired. I go to bed and sleep and feel okay now.

Later I hear the others come in and get into bed and in the morning the postmortem reveals that Jayne shagged Roberto twice within ten minutes all very quick and Lorraine kissed and let him touch her boobs but no further and is now in love.

After breakfast we pack and pay up and leave the hotel and wonder through the streets again. The weather is gorgegously sunny but the tide has come in and everywhere is flooded. You can spot the Venetians in their wellies and waders but us tourist have to use the overcrowded boards or just not go in certain areas. We get to the square and pose for photos by flooded bits suddenly a gull swoops down and kills a pigeon before our eyes and starts to eat it...I feel like I am in a natural history programme but its all a bit yukky and scary really.

We move into the square and the whole thing is just so beautiful with the sun shining and the water reflecting the wonderful architecture its truly gorgeous site. Jayne is challenged to sit on the chairs and she manages to get there with an audience cheering her on.

As everywhere is flooded moving around the city takes even longer but eventually we find our little Trattoria from yesterday and have one last lovely lunch the waitress recognises us. After we go to the bar in the square which is now open today, we must remember Monday is not a good day for Venice it must be like their Sundays for us.

We sit in the sun and drink beer and the waiter from last year comes over and recognises us and says hello which is sweet. Gradually the square comes to life with the old people coming out first and parading around the square and women going to the coop.

All too soon its time to go back and we wonder back through the streets buying last minute shopping till we reach the hotel, pick up our luggage and make our way to the vaporetta while Jayne is busy phoning Roberto, oh where is he to say goodbye?

When we get to the bus stop we have ages to wait so find a bar and sit and people watch and chat and drink its all part of the holiday. On the bus a man with a badly fitting wig sits next to Lorraine and starts a conversation and when we get off he invites all of us to a drink once we have checked in luggage.

This is excellent and it turns out that John Collins is a barrister who has had several wives and children and travels the world via cheap air flights. Nevertheless he buys us drinks and tries to get us to stay longer. Its a much better way to spend time than sitting in departures which in Treviso is a god forsaken place. Once back in the airport we don't have long to wait before we board and are on our way. The flight seems to take for ages as does passport control and bagggage reclaim and the coldness of the air reminds us that our Venitian holiday is over and we are once again back home in damp chilly England.