A DOGE'S DINNER

Around 10:30 we’re all ready for our trip into Venice with Nick W fitted into Nick’s manual chair, starting with a 300yd walk to the bus stop.  It’s not long before the No.5 arrives, a big blue and white bendy bus.  A passenger moves people about to get out the ramp for us and Nick goes part way onto the bus.  At first two people won’t move from the signed wheelchair priority spaces, then one does and others shuffle to make room, except the biggest guy with the biggest trolley case who thinks being German excuses him from the rules.  Finally the driver comes around and explains quite firmly that until the two wheelchairs are onboard, the bus is not moving.  Finally we are squashed in and within 10 minutes we are in Piazza le Roma buying our vaporetti tickets.
We board the first available boat, a No.2 which is as jam-packed as the bus, for the ride down the Grand Canal.  A local tells us there are up to 20,000 cruise passengers in Venice today.  The views all come back to us as do the boat-stop names each time we stop to cram on or drop off passengers.  Being Sunday there are fewer workboats but the sleek water taxis are doing loads of trade as they plane their way amongst the other canal traffic.  We slow for Rialto bridge and continue past the grand former merchant’s buildings, hotels and Salute Cathedral.  Vaporetti plough along full of passengers and a few gondolas are taking punters out to test their selfie-sticks.  It’s doubtful that some people see Venice until the get home and watch the video.  Then we hear ‘nee-nah nee-nah’ and a bright yellow ambulanza parts the traffic as it speeds down the canal, nearly spilling a couple of gondoliers who have to do an impromptu audition for strictly come deck-dancing.  All these experiences for €1.50, the cost of a vaporetto ticket for a wheelchair user, helper goes free.
We alight at Piazza San Marco [St Mark’s Square] and make our way past the souvenir stands towards the Doge’s Palace where there is a 30m queue.  ‘Watch and learn’, says Nick to N+G then goes to the head of the queue, spots a member of staff and asks about wheelchair access.  A ramp is brought out and we are waved to the ticket office where the guide then collects 4 tickets and takes us to another kiosk to scan/verify them.  Normal price €25/adult, our price, 4 x €0.00
Another member of staff takes us to the lift and leads us to the start of our tour, for which we are left to our own devices.  The gilded ceiling of the Senato room we remember well from our visit in 2014 but it is still stunning.  We go from room to room marvelling at wood carvings, gilded mouldings, painted panelling and massive furniture. 
On another floor the Palace room is breathtaking; a huge space, at a guess 8m high, with more gilding and huge paintings of Venetian domination, storming forts, battles in ships and offering the spoils of war to the masters.
Another guide takes us by lift to another floor given over to an art display of Flemish artists featuring ‘Rubens to Tizian’.  There is a gallery’s worth of fine art in there by Rubens, Van Dyke, Van Oost and Tizian among them.  There are tonal sketches of red chalk through to finished masterpieces, the detailing and colouring of which we have never seen as we haven’t visited any significant art galleries before.  Many pieces are from private collections and some are not allowed to be photographed.

Finally there is an exhibit of 16th and 17th century Venetian glassware, chalices, goblets and glasses of exquisite detail and fineness.
When we step into the courtyard it is raining so we pop back into the cafe for a snack lunch [or as we might say, dinner in the Doge’s Palace] and by the time we return outside it is dry.  Being late afternoon many cruise sheep have obediently followed their dedicated flag or umbrella back to their ship and St Mark’s is not at all crowded as we look around. 

The white coated waiters at Lavena and other cafes are serving their customers with drinks as the band plays.  The €7 espresso attracts a cover charge of €7 and the same extra for music but plenty of people are happy to pay €21 for a sip of coffee.
Under the arcades we pass the glass and lace souvenirs and stop opposite Hotel Cavalletto where a fleet of gondolas operate like an airport taxi rank.  We get a close look at these unique craft; the hulls are skewed and biased so they go in a straight line with the offside oar; all are painted a uniform black so ostentatious owners could not flaunt their wealth but little areas can be decorated with silver or gold and all have the vestigial rope cutter ‘F’ stem-post; Furnishings range from piped and buttoned leather seats to an old stool with a velvet cushion.

On this cooler day the gondoliers lose some of their character as they wear coats over the traditional striped shirt.  We watch a few paddle off  under the bridges, passengers with selfie sticks aloft, then return to St Mark’s and peek inside the exclusive Cafe Florian to see its palatial decor.

Then it's back to the pontoon to catch a vaporetto back to Rialto.
Ali and Grete climb the steps to the top of the only bridge over the Grand Canal and position for one of the classic views of Venice.  Some of the shops along the bridge are closed but there is still plenty to buy if a mask, tie or jewellery is on your list.

We had hoped to dine at Omnibus but we were delivered to Rialto-A by the No.2 instead of Rialto-B by a No.1.  A bridge makes it impossible for the wheelchairs to do the 30m journey and it would take maybe half an hour to get a No.2 to a common station and return by No.1.
No matter, another restaurant nearer the bridge does a good range at reasonable prices.  We get a table with a good view and enjoy our meal as dusk falls and the lights come on along the water’s edges.
Dinner over we get the next No.2 back to P. le Roma and enjoy seeing all of the buildings lit up as well as a rising moon over the city. Inside the hotels we can see huge chandeliers in the rooms and ornate furnishings, belying the scruffiness of their exteriors.
The first bus for our route is too full to think about but we’re first in the queue when the next arrives.  Grete and the two chairs block access until Ali pulls out the ramp.  With its warning buzzer sounding, the bus won’t go anywhere until we are in place.  Once underway the driver is imagining himself as Alberto Ascari or maybe Valentino Rossi, taking the bendy-bus around the roundabouts as if he’s trying to catch its tail, but we alight shaken not stirred and return to the campsite for a nightcap.
Fantastic day in a fabulous city.