I felt a heightened sense of urgency as we traveled to Venice. I remember how much I missed not having Marc to share it with the last time I was there. We arrived in Venice at about 3pm. The tour bus dropped off the people going on the optional excursion, a gondola ride and drinks in St. Mark’s square. At 70 euro a person, I talked Marc into us venturing off on our own. Barry told us to ask at reception as to which bus to take, and reminded me to buy four bus tickets—two to get there and two to get back. After the bus dropped us off at the hotel, we set out. Dan and Cindy asked if they could tag along with us. They know I’ve been to Venice before and trusted me to get us there. We bought our bus tickets and caught the no. 4 back to Mestre, the huge parking lot for cars and tour buses. Then we started walking.

We took the very back way to San Marco. We kept following the signs on the buildings which pointed the way, but after awhile we didn’t see any more signs. I knew Marc wanted to hear me speak Italian to someone, so I stopped a woman and asked, “Mi scusi, dov’e San Marco?” Everyone was impressed. She made a face that let me know we were a ways away, and then (I think) she said to follow the signs on the buildings. Along the way, we stopped and got gelato and continued wandering the back alleyways. It was a nice way to go though—we were the only tourists in that area. Finally we got to San Marco’s. Cindy and Dan were super impressed and thanked us for letting them come with us. We invited them to have dinner with us but they said they wanted to eat at the hotel. I told them how to catch a water bus (vaporetto) back to the parking lot. Then Marc and I continued to explore.

I bought a packet of pigeon feed for 1 euro and fed the pigeons as Marc took pictures. They climbed all over my shoulders and arms and head! Finally I dumped the feed at my feet and they clambered all over to get the feed. It tickled.

At about 6:45 we started looking for a place to eat dinner and settled on a little place with outdoor seating in one of the alleyways off of the square. Marc had canneloni and I had ravioli. We had wine with dinner, a bottle of water and a piece of chocolate cake. It cost 60 euros and the portions were small. But it was definitely better than eating back at the hotel. Despite the tourist sitting right next to me who made a lot of sucking noises as he ate his shrimp, the ambiance was well worth the price.

After dinner we went back to San Marco and took pictures of it all lit up. The orchestras were playing and it was in this uber romantic atmosphere that Marc proposed on bended knee. I of course said yes. By then it was 9:30 and a guy came by, peddling roses. We haggled the price of one rose to 3 euros. Then we started back to the hotel. After being told by the ticket seller to take the no. 82 vaporetto, we went to the dock and proceeded to wait. After the second no. 1 came by with no sign of a no. 82, I asked when the next no. 82 was coming by. Ten minutes, I was told. Ten minutes later, another no. 1 came by. And then another. I double checked with the ticket seller: Was she certain an no. 82 would be by that night? Oh yes, yes, ten minutes. After waiting almost 40 minutes, we took the no. 1. The no. 1 makes all the stops and it took forever to get back to the parking lot, where we then we had to wait for a bus. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11pm and we immediately climbed into bed and fell asleep. It had been a long, but extremely memorable, day.