Venice, September 2-4 2018
Sunday, Sept. 2, we caught the train from Bellano to Milan and then switched trains to get to Venice, St Lucia station. We met 3 couples from Australia who were traveling together. They lived on the island of Tasmania. We had some very interesting conversation with them and learned a lot about the island of Tasmania.
Once we arrived in Venice, we stopped at the ticket office and bought a 48 hour pass for the vaporettos (water busses). We are staying on the island of Giudecca, which is across a canal from the main part of Venice, so we took the 4.1 to the Redentore stop. Our host had left a key for us at a galleria around the corner from the apartment. The store was closed, but the key was in the mail slot. The apartment is right on one of the smaller canals. It's a great location, less crowded and an easy boat ride to the island of Venice.
After getting settled into our apartment, we went in search of dinner. There are quite a few restaurants along the waterfront, and we decided to stop at Trattoria ai Cacciatori. Blaine had a shrimp dish with blackened noodles, and Jeri had pesto pasta. We shared a dish of grilled eggplant, zucchini and artichoke. The food is awesome here!!
After dinner we took the vaporetto across to the main island of Venice. The whole Grand Canal had been shut down most of the day for the regatta, which was gondola racing. We got there just as the gondola races were concluding. It was pretty fun to watch. After the obligatory gelato, we headed back to the apartment to sit out on our deck overlooking the canal.
Monday, September 3 was a day of exploration.. We took the vaporetto across the canal and headed to St. Mark's Square. You can't come to Venice without visiting St. Marks square. What a zoo!!! We quickly decided to explore the smaller streets of the city. That was a much better experience. There are lots of shops and restaurants on the smaller streets, and less people. We settled down at a small cafe and had a couple of drinks while we plotted our next move. Blaine really wanted to go to Murano to see the glass factories, so off we went. He had downloaded an offline map of the streets of Venice and we navigated the back streets, winding our way around (occasionally having to backtrack because the street dead-ended at a canal) to the vaporetto stop that would take us to Murano. On the boat ride over we noticed a huge walled island, St Michele. We were discussing what was behind the walls, and thought maybe a monastery. Our curiosity was satisfied when our boat pulled up to the Cinitero stop on St Michele. This was the cemetery for Venice!!
We disembarked at the Faro stop on Murano. The first order of business was getting lunch for Jeri. We found a table at a small outdoor cafe right next to one of the glass factories. Jeri had a pizza, and Blaine had pasta bolognese. Have I said how good the food is here?
The glass shop was pretty empty when we got there, but we quickly found out why. There are tour boats that come in every hour or so for the demonstrations. We were told the next show was at 3:00, so we settled into a seat in the demonstration area. The place was packed as the show began. The glass artist was really amazing to watch. I have a fairly long video attached in the pictures area below if you want to see the full demonstration.
After a fairly lengthy boat ride, we got off at the San Marco stop and wandered around the waterfront of Venice, just mostly people watching. Blaine got his daily gelato and Jeri rested her sore foot.
Once back at the apartment, we sat on the patio and enjoyed the sunset.
At the Murano glass factory in Venice
