Sunday afternoon update

Now we've spent 24 hours in Venice, and we love it. After arriving Saturday evening, we got cleaned up, and went to small restaurant nearby, which is owned by a young couple. She works everything out front and he is the chef. Fortunately, it is very close, and also highly rated by Trip Advisor. Jenae ordered everything, which we shared: steamed mussels and clams for an appetizer:




scallops and asparagus over fresh arugula with pasta for first course, cuttlefish with ink sauce with polenta for the second, and chocolate mousse for dessert. We also enjoyed a liter of a nice red house wine. After dinner, we strolled through the Rialto area, taking in the evening sights. Lots of activity, tourists, locals, shoppers, bars, restaurants, but didn't seem too crowded. Returned to the hotel shortly after 10.

We both slept well on a very firm bed, then had breakfast in the courtyard of the hotel before finding a Vodaphone store to buy a sim card for internet service for the iPad, then slowly wandering to the Gallerie dell’Accademia, a museum of 14 - 18 century Venetian paintings.
After a couple hours there, we went to the Guggenheim museum, but the line was too long, and we didn't want to spend first day in Venice waiting in the hot sun, so we strolled around in search of a drink and lunch. Had a selection of cheeses and meats antipasto with artichokes, tomatoes, walnuts, etc. at a sidewalk cafe watching people go by.

Then we attempted to find our way back to the hotel, but gps technology failed us miserably, and we ended up very lost. The guide books said this would happen, and as we walked along, we encountered many other people also lost. People looking confusedly at their maps, families dragging crying children like a forced march, and us. We gave up on the gps and iPad, and the paper map wasn't much help since we couldn't easily determine where we were, and started asking the locals. The first guy laughed when I told him we wanted to go, but he got us started in the right direction, and then we learned to stop every 5 minutes or so and ask. Even then, one time we went into a cafe and asked,and she said "go over the bridge", so we go outside, and right in front of the cafe are 2 bridges! Lots of very narrow alleys and even more bridges. We finally got our bearing, found some familiar signs, and got back to the hotel where we're relaxing a bit before this evening music performance of Musica a Palazzo.

Before signing off for now, here's an image captured during our near-hopeless wandering this afternoon: