Day 35 – 30th May, Venice ->Murano then Burano!

Day 35 – 30th May, Venice ->Murano then Burano!

What a cool day today! Knew these were going to be the best optionals of the tour and we would see lots of firsts.

Left the hotel at 8.30am, with a short bus ride to the ferry, then over to Murano where the famous hand blown glass is made. Venice is a world of its own with all its water, water everywhere.

We did the obligatory glass blowing demo which was actually very interesting and wandered around their Murano factory, where you would not want to knock anything over. All the glass objects are amazing but very expensive of course. An apprenticeship for a master glass blower is an incredible 15 yrs!! You would have to be dedicated.

Then we were free to wander around and discover the wonders of Venice. The day had cleared for us after all the rain yesterday and we wandered up the warren of alleyways looking in shops.
St Doges palace was shut today due to a strike, so we decided to just wander back through the square- came around the corner and found this huge open square we had just walked through an hour ago was under about 3 inches of water!!!! Apparently it floods 350 days a year and it had come up in an alarmingly short time.
Only one thing to do – take off your shoes and wade through it with thousands of other stranded people! The water probably wasn’t too clean and it stung my skin causing a rash straight away – eeww! But it was a funny thing to experience.

Luckily though it lead us to what Danni later called the best experience of her life. One of those things that just happen – we came upon a large flock of beautiful grey/green and pink pigeons. There was a man selling corn feed so we bought a packet and they came straight up.

The birds all flew up, landing on our arms and hands to get the feed, it was fantastic. One even landed on Danni’s head and our delight was plain to see!! It did pass through my mind about bird germs but they all looked in great health and it was such a cool experience, it was worth it!

Then we wandered around and bought gifts etc and met up to board the boat over to the island of Burano. This is where all the hand made lace is made and has the famous homes on it that are painted different bright colours, depending on the family who own it. These colours were significant as originally it was a fishing island and the fisherman would wear their house colour when they went out to sea. If one was lost, they would know who it was by the colour the man wore.

Went to a restaurant that served an amazing seafood meal of fish pate/spread, seafood lasagna and risotto, then fish steaks, calamari and battered shrimps. This was followed by almond brittle and shortbread with fresh fruit to finish. Drinks were included in the price so a few beers and wines were had!

After being taken care of so well we walked around and bought more gifts. This time though I bought myself 2 lace parasols made here by hand. They are beautiful, once cream and one black – these will hang from the ceiling at home Graeme tells me! We were just so lucky with the weather as this optional would have been off if it had been bleak, but we could have used the parasols today as it was hot.

Caught the boat back to Murano and then on to the famous gondola ride! It is true that there is a lot of rubbish around Venice in the water and some in the harbour area are really bad, but the canals weren’t too bad. Unfortunate for us, we got a very surly gondolier who wouldn’t let us sit together and broke the couples up, then seated us with the 2 heavier guys on one side so we all spent the trip tipped over to one side! He was a grumpy so and so, so I asked him if he was going to sing for us since he wouldn’t let us sit together but – No,”the guy in the next gondola does that”!

The man who sang had a beautiful voice and had another playing the accordion which we could hear so that was good. To finish it off, we caught a water taxi and went around the grand canal – complimentary glass of champagne in hand!

The TD said that the gondoliers are born in to the profession, you cant just decide to be one and that these guys are millionaires – they would need to be since the cost of making a gondola is €150,000 ! This is because they are handmade to very specific specs.

Back on the water taxi across the island, back to Venice and the bus.
What a cool day we have had today- one of those memories you will always have.