Today we awoke so much earlier, 10 AM.  You would think this would give us an early start to the day, but think again, my friends.  We left here at 2 after dinking around on the computer, talking to a friend at 4 AM his time and reading.  We thought we would head toward the Accademia Museum but upon getting to the Campo San Barnaba, we decided to take a street we hadn’t explored.  We went down Calle Lunga San Barnaba but it became known to us as restaurant row.  So many restaurants to choose lunch from, but wait!  They all closed at 2:30 and it was now 2:35!  We finally stopped at a bar across the canal from Chiesa San Sebastiano and had sandwiches and coffee.  Then it was off to explore the Chiesa San Sebastiano, but, no, wait, it’s Sunday and all the churches are closed except for Mass.  So onward we trekked!  We wound up on the Zattere walking along the Giudecca Canal.  Interestingly enough, we heard lots of Italian being spoken.  There are so many Australian tourists here right now that English seems to be everywhere in the air.  We were forced, forced I say, to stop at Gelataria Nico for our first gelatos of the trip, chocolate for Alan and nocciola (hazelnut) for me.  We then walked on down the Zattere until we reached Chiesa Santa Maria Del Rosario where we cut over to the Accademia.  Walking on past it, we headed back toward Campo San Barnaba.  On the way we saw several street musicians, two of whom we include pictures here.

Before getting to the Campo San Barnaba, we just happened on a huge bookstore!  Now we need more books like we need holes in our heads, but buy one we did.  Alan wanted a book in Italian in order to practice his reading.  Italo Calvino should be an easy read.  Then it was back to the apartment and a couple of hours later, we made porcini and gorgonzola risotto.  Thought we would include a picture of this because we haven’t added too much food porn to the blog yet.

Porcini and gorgonzola risotto

Tomorrow our friends from SlowTravel, Tery and Greg arrive.  They are driving to Mestre from Le Marche and we plan on dinner tomorrow and showing them around the Venice we love.  More then.