Despite redundancy announcements, I got a “13th month” bonus which unfortunately went straight into replacing our ageing central heating boiler that had decided to be temperamental and leak boiling water everywhere. Would rather have spent it on a lens 
Our last day was engulfed in fog. So much so the boat from the hotel bypassed crossing the canal to Zaterre and heading straight into St Marks Square, which suited us well. We arrived at St Marks Square and went straight up to the Basilica. Again I became the frustrated photographer as due to my SLR I’m a little more obvious taking my photos than say a point’n'shooter. Having checked in my photo backpack, we walked into the church, signs emblazoned everywhere saying no photography allowed. Once inside, everyone and their dog was photographing so out come the 5D and I think I got some cracking shots.
The church itself was beautiful in its own ostentatious, over the top style that the Italian Catholics loved to heap upon their basilica’s. Gold leaf and lead lighting were everywhere though it was still a beautiful building. Up a level, we went to the Horse balcony, where four horse statues were erected, overlooking St Marks Square. Unfortunately, there was also a lot of scaffolding up there so it wasn’t that photogenic.
Leaving the crowds of the cathedral, we went for a walk around the tourist tat stores one last time and lo and behold, we find a twin of the glass stopper we liked in Murano. At €25 it was actually more expensive than on Murano, a fact that I continue to needle Fiona about still. ;)
We wandered through the streets and canals of Venice until we arrived at Ponte del’Accademia, a large bridge crossing the grand Canal. We had crossed it briefly the previous evening and hoping to get a decent show in the morning sun, I was to be disappointed by the dull of the fog. Next time perhaps.
We packed at the hotel and then boarded a water taxi to the airport (yep, first time I’d ever arrived at an airport by boat!) after which we soon flew out back to Blighty.
In summary:
Hotel: we definitely recommend the Hilton. Pricey, but the fact you had to take the hotel water bus to get to Venice proper meant you felt you were in Venice. In the off season, the staff are also very helpful.
Food: Most of the restaurants are fairly overpriced for what they offer. Hard to find nuggets in the rough but Osteria ae Cravatte was excellent. The Trattoria Canton could have been amazing but lack of english menu and somewhat over priced food ruined it a bit (though their wine selection was top rate). Gelatis and other stalls selling basic food are also excellent.
We set off for Murano early in the morning with a “complimentary” (there’s that word again :-)) water taxi straight through the canals of Venice. We were going to do the clichéd gondola trip (at €70 for 45 minutes it would have been a bit steep) but it turned out the water taxi was far superior. We zipped through the canals in the beautifully appointed boat – wood panelling everywhere with white leather interior – with passers by ogling at us from the foot bridges as we zipped underneath. Out of the canals, the driver opened up the taps and we shot out over open water to Murano, where we pulled up at a glass factory and museum.
The Museum truly was a series of works of art – some “bits of glass” (to put it crassly) cost upwards of €100000 so we avoided it as much as possibly, despite its apparent beauty. A funny thing while there was a middle aged American couple who promptly dropped €6000 on a Venetian tea set though it was quite apparent they were trying to show some class, despite being as couth as a slack jawed yokel 
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Deciding we couldn’t afford anything (not even a set of four wine glasses for €100) we set out to the centre of Murano. We passed countless shops selling all things glass and I set me eye upon a wine stopper which was a sphere of glass with an orange glass goldfish somehow inserted inside. At €20, it seemed a bargain … that is until Fiona decided we should shop around for a better price. As it turned out, we couldn’t find one though being a Sunday and a catholic culture, the original shop has since shut its doors so we were left empty handed. More on this story in the next post though
Taking a water bus back to Venice, we had a great lunch in a little Osteria (Osteria ae Cravatte) which had neck ties nailed to the beams in the ceiling, some from famous people apparently, though I didn’t recognise any names. The food was good and cheap and was in a nice secluded area away from tourists. Outstanding.
We wandered back to Zaterre and caught the hotel water bus back to the hotel and again spruced up to head out on our final night. We picked a restaurant that had good reviews so wandered through the deserted streets in the fog to the restaurant, Trattoria Canton. The food looked amazing, even if we needed a phrasebook and “cheat sheet” of phrases to decipher, so when we both ordered Tartaro di Ciero (venison), we were both looking forward to the meal. When it arrived (after a lengthy wait) we were both shocked to discover we’d ordered RAW venison! Evidently, tartaro = tartare = raw! 
We tried our best but couldn’t get through too much of it (too fatty) and we grinned and beared the €40 we’d just wasted on a poor meal selection. Gah!
We caught the hotel water bus back and sat at the bar for a drink, enjoying our last night in Venice.
After the conference in Malta, we flew with RyanAir who screwed us with baggage charges again. While reading the fine print may have helped us, the overzealous and opaque rules generated solely to squeeze money out of you drives me potty. Bastards!
We landed at Treviso airport and stayed at a B&B opposite the airport. There was some miscommunication with actually getting to the place but once there we were exposed to a very eclectically decorated room with retro furniture from what appeared to be the 1960′s. Fiona loved it, while I was somewhat non-plussed. The next morning we left for Venice proper. An hour on the bus took us over the water and into the mists of Venice. Here we bubbled our way through some dodgy Italian and bought a 3 day water bus pass, which were later to realise that we’d hardly use in the time we stayed in Venice. Another €60 well spent .
Arriving at our hotel to check in, the staff at the bizarrely named Molino Stucky Hilton, bent over backwards for us, upgrading us to a suite and plying us with complimentary drinks at every opportunity. The fact it was free thanks to Hilton honours points made it all the more “suiter” 
Checked in, we hopped on the hotel water bus straight to St Marks square. For the rest of the day, we wandered around like the tourists we were visiting the Rialto Bridge, the Grand canal, The Ghetto, Farmers market and everything else in between. After several hours, we battled the crowds and headed back to the hotel to spruce ourselves up before heading back into Venice. We arrived at the concert hall on time and perched up the back to listen to three singers and a small orchestra belt out favourites from Don Giovanni and other operas. It was a great night.
On our final day we planned to take one of the retro buses to the centre of Malta to a place called Mdina (no, it’s not a typo!), which is tacked onto the side of the town of Rabat (arabic for suburb). Mdina like the other citadels we’ve seen is perched on top of a hill with tremendously large walls. Inside the walls was a labyrinth of streets which contained several museums, tourist shops and attractions, a few restaurants and, of course, a large cathedral dedicated to St Paul. The view from the walls overlook Valletta in the distance but also the Mosta Dome and the blue of the Mediterranean in the background. Again the weather was drizzly, so we wandered around quickly without much care for detailed sight seeing.
St Paul’s cathedral
Mosta Dome
Leaving Mdina, we headed into Rabat, where there was a ceremony for about to be held for one of the saints (not Patrick) and the streets were decorated with various columns throughout the route that I’d assume a procession was to follow. We ended up at St Paul’s grotto, which was located under St Paul’s Cathedral (yes another St Paul’s cathedral), and is apparently where Paul stayed during his time shipwrecked on Malta in 60AD.
St Paul’s cathedral (another one!)
St Paul’s cave – where he camped out after being shipwrecked
Arriving back to Mdina from the short walk to Rabat, we had lunch at the cafe located on the citadel walls, overlooking the same view of Mosta and Valletta mentioned earlier. The food here was fairly ordinary, with fake icing using instead of cream on the cake, and a somewhat bland house wine, though the view was brilliant, as was the weather which was allowing the sun to poke through the rain clouds of earlier.
We then caught the bus back to Valletta where we relaxed at the Excelsior bar awaiting time to fly to Venice.
Glaze theme by 
All material (C) Dennis & Fiona MM-MMX