Before we left the hotel we went out the back door to check the weather and the terrace of the hotel.
Cold and damp! Raincoat weather.
Yummy, fresh seafood!And an assortment of sausages.
Fresh meat, of course. What next, Mom?
After the market we rushed back to St. Marks cathedral to see it with the lights on. Although it is better lit it's still pretty dark. At this point we decided that we had better take advantage of the weather and do our gondola ride.
All the gondoliers were waving and shooting at us - well, OK I do tend to exaggerate. One gondolier looked at us and came forward and we jumped in his Gondola and off we went.
The following pictures are all sefies taken with our fancy device we purchased in Rome. We saw a few being sold in Venice but not like in Rome. I should have bought a couple of hundred and spent a little time selling them in Venice. I think I could have done quite well. Darn!
Again, the Opera House as seen from our gondola.One of the streets named for Maria Callas. I had heard her sing at the Kennedy Center so had to get a picture of this sign. Fondamenta means foundation or substructure so I'm not sure it was the street that was named for her but anyway I have a picture of it.
The decoration on the gondola which is very traditional.Ourgondolier took us out on the Grand Canal. We were the only gondola out there. This is the hotel Mary and Jerry stayed.
The house with the frecos.
Our hotel from the Grand Canal.
Returned to land and we were hungry. Being on the water definitely increases your appetite. We decided to try one of the restaurants Luisella had recommended. 
Planning our route.
Success!
Complimentary fried zucchini. I could have made a meal of it. It was so delicious! We talked to a man who has been visiting Venice twice a year for 26 years. He's from St. Louis. He told us this is one of his favorite restaurants and he always has lunch here at least once on each trip.
Michele and I shared a plate of grilled razor clams. She was rather reluctant but did it for me.
She liked them.
We next shared a white truffle tagliatelle pasta. We were so mad we had decided to share it. We could have eaten a whole plate of our own but we were going out to our last dinner and we wanted to save room. There would have been rooom. The pasta was so light and the sauce - perfect.
We left so very satisfied- well maybe yearning for more but we had places to go and things to see.
We happened to notice the menu on the door of the restaurant as we left. 
This translates lloosely "no pizza beause we are too stupid to learn how to prepare."Reminds me of the time I was in Florence and we were sitting at a llittle cafe and an Italian musician and his son came by and asked for requests and the table next to us asked for" The Yellow Rose of Texas".
After lunch we had a plan to go back to some of the shops Luisella had shown us but we also didn't care one way or another. Getting lost in Venice is a must. Perfect for me!
Yes, that is a street. 
A lilttle break to have some Gelato. It was on our list. 
Saw lots of gondolas - some are very elaborate and some rather simple.
Lots of masks.
We had been lucky all day - just a few sprinkles but then it started to rain a little bit harder. Fortunately we were right by Ca'Rezzonico which was one of the places Luisella had mentioned that we might like to see. We decided that would be perfect.
Th Palazzo Rezzonico is home to the Museum of the 18th century Venice. The quality of the numerous works exhibited, together with the extraordinary architecture and setting, make Ca'Rezzonico a veritable temple of the Venetian 18th century.
We bought the audio. We decided to share ours - one person listens into the telephone like instrument and the other attaches a headphone. We saved a couple of euro by doing this. 
Take my recommendation - get two audios. I'd forget we were attached and off I'd go and leave Michele and the earpiece behind.
The house was filled with beautiful art work and elaborately painted ceilings. Too many to photograph. It does give you a very good idea of how the rich lived in the Venice in the 18th century - quite well, I'd say!
A beautifully carved vase holder.
On the top floor is an antique pharmacy complete with 183 majolica remedies. " Apparently pharmaceutical-grade scorpions don't cure everything. Robert Browning dies at the Ca'Rezzonico in 1889."
We left the museum and tried to find a little shopping street and as luck would have it - we did. We stopped into this llittle shop and Michele made a couple of purchases. All done by a local artist.There were a number of things she wanted but shipping is expensive so she opted for a number of smaller items. I threw one thing in the box too. Had to have a little something to remember this trip.
Notice the big black blotches on the street signs. It was decided a few years ago to change all the signage to Italian. The Venetians did not like this and so they have modified the signs - blacking out the letters that " do not belong". Stopprd to get directions from a local .
Time to go home and freshen up for dinner. We had reservations at a restaurant that had great reviews, reccommended also by the concierge, and by some people we had met during our visit in Venice. We wanted our last meal to be something special.
We took the water bus to the part of Venice where the restaurant was located. We left early as we wanted to go have a drink at a bacaro before hand. We do love those little bars. The concierge had recommended one but we couldn't find it so we made do, Drank with all the locals.
Getting on the water bus. It was our first time using it. It is a fun way and easy way to get around Venice. We just didn't have enough time to expplore all there is to see. Next time!
Arrived in a lovely part of Venice which would be fun to come back to and explore. 
And we found a bacaro. Did you think we wouldn't?
We had to search a little bit but we found our restaurant.
A complimentary cup of soup.
Steak tartar. A llittle raw quail egg right in the middle. It was delicious.
A ravioli for our pasta course. Lorenzo our waiter pointed out that they get eggs only from happy chickens so we didn't need to worry about eating raw eggs which came with both the 1st course and the pasta course. Lornzo is the son of the owners. Dad is Italian and mom comes from Texas. He helped make our last night special!
We shared the first two courses and both ended up ordering the same thing for our main course which was too bad. Would have been fun to see and taste something different. For some reason we just both thought this sounded good - beef cheeks with horseradish mashed potatoes and radiccio. The radiccio tasted like artichoke heart. It was absolutely perfect. I have to add we ordered a bottle of Amarone wine to go with the dinner. It too was soooooooooo good! We have the Sorvino's to thank for introducing this wine to us. 
The next day we were up early and took a water taxi to the airport. My plane didn't leave until 12:45 but Michele's left at 9:00. I decided to just go with her so I could see her off. I thought I could spend the hours in the lounge at the airport and do some blogging. Well I couldn't get through security until 2 hours before my flight but I sat in a little cafe that was open until then. Worked well.
In the taxi.
Finally made it to the lounge and they had a nice little lunch buffet there so I filled up before boarding the plane. The plane ride back was uneventful and when I landed in Marseilles I had to find the bus to take me to the train station. That wasn't so easy but I eventually found the bus and someone on the bus spoke English so I was reassured. Got to the little stop,actually outside Marseilles, and there is no station although there are some places to sit down. My train was not coming for another hour and a half. The young woman who spoke English looked at the sign on the platform and said there was a train going to Avignon in 10 minutes and although it was a different line I should be able to get on it. Yippee. It was a long day. I had been up at 5:00 am and it was now 5:30pm. I hopped on that train and didn't care if I had to buy another ticket although I don't think you have to. I had a reserved seat on the other train but this train was almost empty. The stops were not indicated in the train and I was a little concerned about missing my stop but all worked well. I should mention that at no time since I've ridden the train in France has anyone checked my ticket.
Home at last. It was so lovely and I had been sitting all day so I just WALKED home, The Christmas lights were up and the people were out milling around.
It was such a wonderful week. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to spend a week with Michele. She only gets so much vacation and how lucky I am that she wanted to spend it with me. We really did have such a good time. We saw so many wonderful sights, we ate such good food, we drank some very fine wine and we had some great laughs. What could be better.
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