We started our day a little later today, slept in until 8:00 and went for breakfast in the common room at 10:00. Lorenzo makes some seriously good (strong) Italian coffee. He also checks the weather report for us each morning and highlights routes for us on our map. Just like in Paris, everything is only a 10 minute walk away.

We set out to the vaporetto (water bus) stop to Murano armed with our highlighted map and Selena’s portable GPS unit. Turned out it was a good thing that we had the GPS, as we may have gotten a teeny tiny bit lost. There was a strike today of all of the public transportation, but by law, even if they are striking they still have to provide transport to the islands. However, the line we took only went as far as Murano, so weren’t able to make it to Burano or Torcello. Which was okay with me, as I am way more interested in glass than I am in lace.

In the first store/factory we entered in Murano, there were at least 20 glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. They took my breath away. A very charming older Italian man working in the shop saw my “wow” reaction and said he says the same thing every time he gets to work in the morning. We went out behind the store for a glass blowing demonstration in the factory. Ever since Jody and I took our glass blowing course a few years ago and I first learned about Murano, I’ve wanted to visit it – I can still hardly believe that we were actually there today.

After touring more of the island, we stopped for lunch to fortify ourselves to hit the shops along the main canal in Murano. There is so much beautiful glassware to choose from – pretty much anything you can imagine. At one of the last shops while we were looking at picture frames, the gentleman working there came over pointed at a picture of himself blowing glass and said we were lucky to be looking at the best looking glass blower in all of Murano.

We headed back to Venice around 3:00 and without the aid of the GPS we made it right back to our B&B with no wrong turns. However, the weather turned a little windy and cool, so the vaporetto ride back was over choppy water. So while I may have left my heart in Paris, I left a little of my lunch in the Venice lagoon.

After a quick pit stop at the B&B, we were off to San Marco Basillica for our tour. The mosaics were overwhelmingly beautiful to me. The walls/ceiling are covered with 8,000 square meters of mosaics made up of tiles that are about 1×1 cm. They depict scenes from the old and new testament, especially the gospel of Mark. The floors of the basillica are 2,000 square meters of geometric mosaics, made up of 60 different kinds marble. It was amazing to see!

We made our way from the basillica to Caffe Florian, which has been open since 1720. We had a cappucino and a sparkling water while listening to the live classical music. Wonderful!

We then toured the Palazzo Ducale (Doge’s Palace), crossed the Bridge of Sighs, and went on a maze-like tour of the prisons. We learned a lot about how Venice was goverened on our walking tour, so viewing the Palace and the prisons was a great way to see what our guide had been talking about. I’ve posted a “cheeky” pic from the palace tour.

Our last stop today was at Harry’s Bar, where the Bellini was invented. Open since 1931, it was one of Hemingway’s favorite watering holes. It is a tiny little bar and was completely packed. Selena treated me to a Bellini in honor of my 35th birthday tomorrow. The Bellinis we have back home are tasty, but we agreed that the ones we had today were delicious.

Tomorrow we are off to Rome.

Ciao for now,

stace