Day 25 - Mon 22 Sep 25: Castelbrando (Venice)

September 22, 2025

Mon 22 Sep 25: Castelbrando (Venice)

A cloudy morning with rain forecast this afternoon. Today after a leisurely start, we made our way down from the castle by funicular to catch our bus to Venice for the day, 77km away. At Tronchetto we left the bus and boarded a private boat that took us to Venice. Here we were joined by a local guide who took us for a walking tour through the myriad of narrow, water lined streets and alleys to St Mark's Square and through the stunning St Mark's Basilica. The guided tour finished around midday, then Noel and I headed off by ourselves to the famous, and oldest of the the four bridges spanning the Grand Canal in Venice, Ponte di Rialto (The Rialto Bridge). After taking a couple of photos, we wandered a little more through the crowded narrow alley ways and found a nice quiet little restaurant for lunch and coffee. After enjoying our lunch break for almost 90 minutes, we eventually made our way back to St Mark's square to join the rest of the group for a boat ride along the Grand Canal, before returning to Tronchetto to board the bus back to Castle Brando. As we stepped of the boat, the forecast rain began to fall - perfect timing once again. We arrived back at Castel Brando at about 5:30, and had a bit of quiet time in the room, before meeting at 7:00pm in the restaurant for another wonderful dinner. The food has been outstanding, and there has been no shortage of red or white wine, beer or soft drinks with the meals. The overall tour package so far, including the standard of hotels, service, meals and tours has been excellent value for money. An added bonus today, was Noel commenting that she is feeling better than any other day in the past 10 days. Tomorrow, we pack up and leave for Montecatini Terme in Tuscany for a 5 night stay.