It was a very early start this morning, I was awake at 6.30 and left here by 7.30 to get the traghetto to the stop where I had to meet the tour group to go to the Dolomites.

When I stepped out the door of the monastery I saw that the pathways had been put out at the bridge just outside the door, then saw them set up all through San Marco Piazza so obviously acqua alta was expected today.

The planks "they" set up to walk on for acqua alta (high water) when Venice floods,

I used to worry about how on earth I would step up so high but when I saw that

they connect to bridges or put a lower step down at the start I stopped worrying -

I haven't needed to use one - yet

It is very quiet around Venice early in the morning.  The only people about are people setting up tripods in San Marco to take morning photos and council workers, sweeping and collecting rubbish to make the place clean and tidy for another day.

Cleaners out and about early in the mornings

Delivery guys out and about early

San Marco in the 'mist' this morning

San Marco in the mist

Bridge of Sighs in the mist

I went to the stop where I saw the No. 2 traghetto yesterday but no, wrong stop, this morning the No. 10 traghetto was leaving from that stop, I needed to walk 200 meters the other way to a different stop which I did, managing to drop my traghetto ticket somewhere along the way when I took a photo of Venice in the mist – I was told yesterday that Venice doesn’t have fog, Venice has mist – so I had backtracked to find a ticket office open to get another ticket and on the way managed to find my ticket I had dropped – luckily no one else was about to either pick it up or just walk over it.

The tour guy was waiting at the end of the line, there were 24 of us and we split into 3 groups of 8.  The tour information said we would be going in a minibus – it was actually a people mover and the guy kept calling it a minibus which didn’t sit well with my OCD but I coped!!

We took off for our 2 ½ hour drive – no one spoke – we stopped after about 1 ½ hours for coffee which hit the spot, we got back in the ‘car’ and … no one spoke.  We stopped about a half hour later for some photos and I started asking questions, the tour guide was answering away and I’m asking all the questions under the sun, but no one else spoke.  Not uncomfortable much.

First stop

Back in the ‘car’ and we get to our final stop where the tour guy dropped us one side of a frozen lake and told us that he would meet us in the car on the other side and then we would have lunch.  So off we went.  I followed two guys from America and I started to slip a couple of times and started to have a bit of a giggle.  Then there was a chick from America behind me, they were all used to the snow but were slipping just as much and one of the guys slipped right over so that did it for me, I just burst out laughing.  Noone else laughed, or spoke!  The other four people were somewhere, we didn’t see them. 

Taken while walking around and across the frozen lake

We got about half way around the lake and I saw the guys starting to go off the path and start to walk on the frozen lake, then the American chick behind me took off over the lake so I asked if we were all going that way and finally someone spoke!  The American chick said it would be quicker, by this time their shoes were soaking – my boots did the trick for me!

Walking across the frozen lake was fine, I did worry a bit a couple of times because I could see water through the ice, but they assured me it would be okay.  All was fine until we got to the other side of the lake and there was a sharp incline.  The two guys had got up the incline and they were nowhere to be seen.  The American chick in front of me got stuck half way, and while I’m asking her how I can help her an Italian guy stopped and gave her a hand up and I sang out “Fermare!! Anche auito a me per favour!” which I was hoping was “Stop!  Please help me too” which he did.  We both got up onto the road and I tapped one foot against the other to get the snow off my boots and that did it – I was standing on ice and slipped over – it felt like slow motion – flat on my backside.  Well that did it again – all I could do was laugh.  By this time the American chick must have realised there was no shaking me because she helped me get up and dust myself off.

About ten minutes later the other four arrived so all eight of us were by now on the other side of the lake.  No sign of the tour guy.

We waited about half an hour, and then it started snowing.  It was absolutely stunning but snow melts and turns to wet.  Ten more minutes and the other two groups turn up so we got one of the other guides to ring our guy who turns up and I couldn’t work out whether he was angry with us because he tried to tell us we had gone to the wrong spot, or relieved that he had found us.  

We went into the pizzeria and split into two booths of four people – I don’t know where the tour guy went, I think to have a stiff drink, I think we had done his head in!

So, all four of us – two American guys, one Aussie woman and one American woman all sitting in the one booth, and they all pull out their phones, so, I started talking to them.  After five minutes their phones were away and we were all talking about travels and holidays and blah blah and it was great.  Finally, after about 4 hours someone else besides me was talking.

We had a delish lunch then get back into the car and head off to Cortina.  By this stage it was snowing pretty heavily so the going was slow.  We saw a few cars sliding off to the side of the road because apparently they didn’t have the proper tyres, our guide did a great job of driving down some pretty steep and windy parts of the road. 

Snow is coming

Can't see the Dolomites any more

Snowing

By the time we arrived in Cortina it was still snowing pretty heavily so the tour guy pulls over and asks if we want to get out and either have coffee or go for a walk for half an hour – it was only an hour since lunch – or did we want to keep going.  Silence … until I broke the silence and said I would rather keep going, then everyone else said at the same time that they were happy to keep going too but they didn’t want to be the first to say it (FFS!).  So we took off again … in silence … until the two American guys in the front seat started snoring.  Nice.  I just kept looking out the window, gushing at how beautiful everything looked to no one in particular and no one in particular was listening because no one answered!

It snowed all the way back to Venice

We got back to Venice around 6pm, back on the traghetto and I got off at the Post Office to get a box to send more crap home before I move in a couple of days to the other side of Venice.  The Post Office I stopped at doesn’t have boxes … long story short I will go to the other post office in the morning …

On the way to the Dolomites

On the way home from the Dolomites