10-6 Lagoon Tour

Up and out – the early birds (us!) walked over to the train station again in the morning to pick up our day passes for the water bus.  We had purchased discounted tickets online – the downside being you could only pick them up in certain places, none of which were convenient. So we used the walk as a replacement to exercise.  Hit the Coop grocery store on the way back and still had time for breakfast and showers before we started our island tour.

The Rageths met up with us a little before 10 and we headed out to Murano.  We pushed our way onto the water bus – which was packed!  The first stop was San Michele (the cemetery) where virtually everyone on the waterbus disembarked. We couldn’t figure out what was going on!  Tuesday must be a busy day at the cemetery!

Took us a little over 1/2 an hour to get to Murano in the murky morning fog. (It’s autumn in Venice – foggy in the mornings, clear and warm in the afternoons).  We wandered through the streets looking at all the jewelry and glassware on display in the  shops.  There were signs in many windows saying “no Chinese glass sold here”.  Obviously an issue here – as it really is everywhere I suppose.  We didn’t venture in to any factories – avoiding the sales pitch – but we did watch some glass blowing at a factory outside the vaporetto stop while we waited for the ferry to Burano. But we did stop by a terribly bizarre and wildly contemporary (and out of place, I might add) glass art piece in the middle of the piazza. 

The ferry to Burano takes almost an hour – we spent the time chatting and catching up in the crisp fall air (we stayed outside on the vaporetto – even though it was a tad nippy there for a while!

Once on Burano – we decided to go directly to Torchello – a teeny island that was where Venice actually was founded. People migrated to Torchello to avoid Atilla the Hun and then onto the islands that are now know as Venice.  Allegedly only 20 people now live on the island, but it is a big tourist destination.  There is a hotel and a few restaurants, a church and ruins, but that is truly about it.  You really have to time the vaporettos once there – they only come every 30 minutes so you have to be cognizant of the timing in order not to get left on the island!

We caught our vaporetto back to Burano and wandered around the brightly colored streets looking at buildings and restaurant menus!  The guys chose a restaurant right on the canal where we had pizza and anitpasti and pasta.  As we were eating the sun finally broke through the fog and the bright colors of the Burano houses really came to life.

After lunch, we wandered through the streets, taking pictures, looking at houses, then hopped the vaporetto back to San Marco – and hour and a half trip in the sun and the wind.

Back in Venice, we left the Rageths to take a Grand Canal cruise, while we went in search of an Internet cafe.  Later, we all met again for dinner and headed back to Mia Casa.  Unfortunately, they were closed, so we wandered up to the main street heading to the train station and found Cafe Gianni. 

Turned out to be a great selection – food was great, company even better.  We spent our last evening together eating, talking and drinking our way through the wonderfully cool and  atmospheric Venice evening.