Venice - All's Well That Ends Well

 The Campanile, in the Piazza San Marco, is the tallest building in Venice

 The Ponte di Rialto (Bridge), built in 1591, crosses the Grand Canal

 View from the Rialto Bridge of the Grand Canal

View of our heavy beamed but spacious attic apartment living room

Had a bit of a rough night as the windows to our apartment are directly above a major walkway and the sound travels up to our bedroom.  The voices stayed late and started early.  The good news is that we woke to sunshine and beautiful blue skies.  After a shower Rita checked her emails and happily found that Lufthansa lost and found had her e-book.  Yeah!!!  Our luck is starting to turn around.  Headed out for breakfast and a long day of walking the streets of Venice.  After checking out St. Marks Square and the Rialto Bridge that crosses the Grand Canal we realized that the iconic sites will be jammed with thousands of cruise ship tourists that waddle ever so slowly behind tour guides.  We decided to head off the beaten track and explore some of the other wonderful Venice sites until the Cruise ship crush had moved on.  Had a very nice lunch in one of the many large Compo's (squares) before heading back to the now less crowded main sites.  We had to be back at our apartment at 16:00 to meet our representative so she can take us to our booked apartment.  She was on time and had good news.  Our apartment was ready and we would be refunded the cost of our first night accommodation.  The original apartment we booked was a 5 minute walk tucked away at the end of a very narrow alleyway.  We carried our luggage up 4 flights of stairs to our wonderfully spacious attic apartment.  It is as good as the images on its website and we can now finally unpack and settle into our Venice holiday.  After a shower we headed off to buy some groceries and find a place for dinner.  Supermarkets are rare in Venice as rent is very expensive and the location has to be next to a canal allowing for barges to deliver the goods and fresh produce required to keep the store shelves stocked.  Our apartment representative also gave us several recommendations of places where locals eat.  Unfortunately, non of them are around where we live, in the heart of the tourist area.  We did find one close to the supermarket and got there at 19:10, ten minutes after it opened,  We were the first customers but in less than 20 minutes the place was full and people were waiting outside for a table.  The food was local and delicious.  It included our first Octopus Salad since we visited Portovenere in 2007.  After dinner we headed back to our apartment, loaded down with our groceries.  The evening was warm but the scenery looks very different in the dark and you very quickly get disorientated.  But we did find our way back and settled in for our first restful sleep in days.