One last espresso, one last lagoon
Last morning tradition: the Rialto produce and fish market. Operating since 1097. Go early (opens 7:30am). The fishmongers lay out the day's catch on marble slabs — octopus, branzino, cuttlefish, shrimp. Buy fruit for the flight.
Accessible by Alilaguna water bus (€15, 1.5 hrs from San Marco) or water taxi (€120, 30 min). One last boat ride across the lagoon.
Last morning. Early to the Rialto Market — operating since 1097, nearly a thousand years of Venetians buying fish and produce from the same marble counters. The fishmongers are artists — octopus arranged in spirals, shrimp fanned like playing cards. Buy peaches for the flight.
One last espresso standing at a bar counter. One last gelato. One last look at the Grand Canal from the Rialto Bridge.
Water taxi to Marco Polo Airport — one final boat ride across the lagoon, the Venice skyline receding behind you, the campaniles and domes getting smaller until they dissolve into the heat haze over the Adriatic.
Six Salsburgs came to Salzburg and to Rome and to Paris and to Venice. Fourteen suitcases heavier now (Murano glass, leather goods, Mozartkugeln, a perfume Emily made in Grasse, a jar of truffle salt from Barbaresco). Nineteen days. Seven countries. Three overnight trains. One rental car. Two miners' slides. One trick fountain ambush.
Ricki will sleep the entire flight home. He'll deny it.
The Rialto Market has operated for 929 years — since before the Magna Carta, before Genghis Khan, before the printing press. The same marble counters, the same sunrise unloading from boats.
She'll want to buy every souvenir she sees on the walk to the water taxi. Let her get one last thing. She'll pick the most sparkly option available.
Water taxi to the airport is the most comfortable option — door to terminal, 30 minutes, no hauling luggage onto a water bus. Book ahead through the hotel concierge.