Breakfast is included in this hotel as well, which I appreciate as it is one less meal we have to source. It is also a good learning experience in how other cultures eat breakfast – Salzburg had a lot of meats and cheeses, Lucerne included churros with chocolate dipping sauce, and Venice has many cake varieties on offer. Thankfully they have all also done juices and cereals, or I would not have got my money’s worth.

We met in the foyer after breakfast at 9.30am and walked to St Mark’s Square. We paid 3 euro each to go inside the Basilica of St Mark, which was impressive but disappointing that once inside there were other sections and a museum you had to pay more euro to enter. We had hoped to climb the bell tower outside as well, but it is closed for renovation until the end of February. St Mark’s Square was much emptier than I have ever seen it before, eerily quiet compared to the streets and laneways around it.

From there we split up. Tom, Abi and Sam joined my adventure to find the Library of High Water (with gondolas inside ready to fill with books during floods), while the others all walked to the Basilica della Salute.

From there we all wandered back to the hotel, picking up some pizza slices for lunch on our way.

We then walked back up to St Mark’s Square to find the oldest coffee shop in Italy, Caffe Florian. It was also closed for renovation! Everyone except Ross and Luke were keen to take a gondola ride, so we found two in a smaller canal and enjoyed a half hour ride (for 90 euro!).

We then decided to split up into smaller groups to shop. We had planned to watch a glass blowing demonstration, but not all the kids were excited about it, and most of the places to do that activity were closed for the month of January. We did find one open on the island of Murano – a 25 minute demonstration in the Glass Cathedral for 10 euro each, but given we would have to add the cost and time of transportation to Murano and it was not high on anyone’s list to do, we decided to buy Murano glass on the island of Venice instead.

Jess found a jewellery shop where you could design your own bracelet, so she, Abi and Belle did that together. Beck and Tom sampled several limoncellos, and I visited half a dozen Murano glass stores before I made a decision about what to buy.

The boys had become bored with all the shopping by this point, so returned to the hotel while Luke and Ross went exploring further, walking as far as Scuola Grande Di San Rocco. Over dinner they realised they achieved over 25,000 steps today, their most in one day on this trip!

Once we all arrived back at the hotel, we met in the lobby at 6pm (which meant waking Tom and Cooper from their slumber) to find somewhere for dinner. I had found a reasonably priced restaurant in the morning which reminded me very much of one we ate in when here 9 years ago.

When we reached Trattoria da Gigi, Ross and Luke were not so keen on it because they felt harassed by the doorman (which happens in most of the restaurants here), but the doorman at the restaurant next door convinced them to eat there. He promised no service tax (which has regularly been 12.5% on top of our restaurant bills), but did provide very good service with as much bread as we could eat and a welcome juice or Prosecco. We were a little nervous because the restaurant was empty when we arrived, but by the time we finished our meals it was full and he was true to his word.

The meals were more filling than last night’s, but everyone kept some room available for gelato scoops from Suso further down the same street. Ross said it is the best gelato he has ever had (and Cooper and Tom went back for seconds – or thirds? – after the rest of us turned in for the night).

Beck accompanied me back to the restaurant after dessert while the others returned to the hotel, because next door was another Murano glass shop I needed to explore! I now have some small dishes of Murano glass to make up for missing Murano 😉