Venice Day Three

Today we went to the island of Murano where they make glass. This little island is world renowned for their glass. It was for good reason. We started off by them sending two taxis to come and pick us up and take us to them. Well I should say water taxis, not real taxis. Vaparettos. It was very cool to see the island and the beautiful sea early on the morning sun. I love the way the ocean looks in the morning, glittery and bright. It was really cool. We arrived at the glass factory and we started our tour by a glass blowing demonstration. The tour guide told us that glass blowing is something passed down from father to son, it is all in the family and most manufacturers just continue to higher within a family. He made a candlestick and a solid glass horse figurine and it only took him like ten minutes to make. It was very interesting to see how quickly the process goes. The tour continued to the showroom where there are 9 count them……9 rooms of glass from floor to ceiling. Everything you can think of that is made of glass is in this room. Sculptures, figures, jewelry, glassware, dinnerware, candles stick holders, I mean really everything. The chandeliers though were my favorite. So beautiful in so many different sizes and shapes….all glass. There was a curtain at the top of a staircase….it was made of glass c’s just hooked on to one another an entire curtain made of glass…yikes. I would like to note that I made it through and entire warehouse full of glass and beautifully breakable things and I did not break one thing. That’s right! Not a one. Take that…Anyway after the tour we took the time to wander around the island a little more and enjoy the beautiful weather. We spotted a great little piazza with a huge glass sculpture in the middle. It was all the beautiful colors of blue you see on the Mediterranean. We wandered in and out of glass shops and at all the pretty glass things. In one store we were looking at some figurines and Kylee touched it and we were almost eaten up by the evil green Italian lady that bit our heads off about not touching…..What are we three? She was mean. We did not buy anything there just to spite the evil green monster. We went into a little bakery that smelled of heaven and meringues…darn senses do me in every time. I bought something that looked like a mini pecan pie and it was not. It was not every good either. It was dry and hard. DENIED! We hopped on the equivalent of what would be a metro and sat on a boat for about an hour as we took the longest way ever to get to St. Marks Square. No lie, An hour we had almost made a complete circle. It was annoying, even then we didn’t get off at the right stop and had to get off the next one wait and then get on the vaparetto in the opposite direction to finally get to where we needed to be. St mark’s was so crowded and hot….too much direct sun light I was just loving all the close walkways and bridges that guard you form the sun. We waited in a line that was really long and went really fast. We were not allowed to take pictures. So that sucked but the Mosaics in the vaults and domes were unbelievable. Everything was gold and shiny and so beautiful. I have never seen so many mosaics that were so detailed in one place. The church itself is not that big. Just big enough to make you feel small. Susie, Kylee and I then went to the top of the Campanelli which is the bell tower. It was 8 Euros and it was so worth it. One elevator straight up and down. That’s it no stairs….that’s my kind of climb. We had such a great view of Venice. 360 degree view of all the islands and the main land. It was so pretty, all the tiled roofs with a slightly different color variation to them than Florence and Rome. It seems that things in Venice are just more golden and soft. At this point Kylee and I took the time to walk around St, Mark’s Square and sit to enjoy the scene. It was nice. We had a little snack and chatted about life….ahhhh so nice. We Made our way slowly back to our hotel. Wandering the street and shops along the way. We went back to our beautiful hotel and took a much needed nap and then went out for dinner. Dinner was really good. I also went to the grocery store to buy some things to take home as presents. I had a croissant I took from breakfast with some zwieback toasts, cheese and a pear. Very delicious. The air in Venice is salty and cool at night that is just so fresh and nice, I could die. Walking back to our hotel we made our plans for tomorrow and went to bed….my favorite thing to do here, because of the super nice beds and sheets and fancy hotels. I just love it here…..NIGHT!