Venice, Italy, day two
We started the day by getting a water bus to the nearby island of Murano, where the famous Venetian glass is made. We spent a couple of hours looking through the little shops with just about anything you want made from glass. Remembering we had to attempt to get our purchases home, we opted for a small plate and some jewellery. It was nice over at the island, away from the craziness of touristville, Venice. The whole island of Venice is just tourists, I doubt if we’ve seen more than a handful of locals. Takes away from the feel of the place a bit.
Back on the mainland, we decided to check out the view from the top of the bell tower at St Mark’s Square. Unlike in Rome and Florence, there was a lift the whole way to the top. Simon was genuinely dissapointed until I reminded him how much he complained on the walks up the other two!! As the buildings are high and the canals so narrow, we couldn’t see any of the canals from the bell tower, it was like a different city. We didn’t stay too long in St Mark’s square as the flying rats (pigeons) are constantly flapping around you - feral!!!
Simon then found an old Gutenberg-style printers and was in awe of all the old machinery. He got himself some personal cards made for fun.
My aunty Lindy had organised a gondola ride for us at 7:30 so we headed to the take-off point. We were an hour or so early so we decided to have a drink to celebrate our engagement while we waited. Just happens, the bar nearest to us was mighty expensive. We could have got a cocktail in a hand blown glass for 99 euro each, but opted for a glass of champagne instead. Being a up-market place, we got plenty of ‘complementary’ hors d’ouerves which was nice. We also had a great table overlooking the grand canal - lovely! Our gondola arrived but we weren’t first on, so didn’t get the comfy seats! Oh well, it was still lovely going through all the small canals of Venice at dusk - perfect time to do it! Our gondola came with a singer and accordian player which was very funny and also meant people were taking pics and recording us as we went past, hehe. It was interesting seeing how many abandoned buildings there are as we sailed around. It was a lovely way to spend our last night in Venice.
We then headed to a nice restaurant for dinner. We had some yummy scallops and spaghetti with lobster and fresh tomato… yum! Simon had lasagne… again! :) Simon has been trying to convince me to try the Spumante here and that it’s not the same as the 2 buck chuck variety in Australia. Anyway, I gave it a go.. must say, not a huge fan but certaintly drinkable. I think I’ll leave it to the Italians though and stick to their Chianti varieties!
And so our time in Venice is up. It’s certainly an interesting place to see. I was mighty excited when I arrived at the train station and were greeted by water buses and water taxis. All the brigdes and little canals are too cute and it was lovely sitting by the canal having a drink. I think the amount of tourists and the pigeons would grate on me after a few days, so two days here was the perfect amount! Milan next to see Jase and Grace. :)
