Today we got up bright and early to meet our tour group in San Marco for our tour of Murano and Burano. It was another English speaking tour, which means there were definitely some Americans, Brits and I think some Italians who spoke English. We saw an interesting art installation called Building Bridges by an Italian artist called Lorenzo Quinn from 2019. I wanted to see one of his pieces of work that was too large hands like holding up a building, but we never found that. This is six pairs of hands arching 50 feet over a waterway near a former shipyard. The hands are made of white resin to mimic the white marble seen around Venice and symbolize the need to build bridges and overcome differences. They stand for hope, love, help, faith and wisdom. When they were unveiled, Andrea Bocelli performed.

Our first stop was Murano. It took us 30 minutes by boat to reach the island, or should I say the series of islands. Just as champagne can only come from that certain region in France, Murano glass can only be created in one of the 60 or so factories on the island. They have been doing so since the 13th century. We saw a very brief glass blowing demonstration. The artists were making a chandelier. We’ve seen better demonstrations at other places, but it was still interesting. Just not very long. Then you’ll be surprised to hear. We moved to the store. There were two floors of glasswork from chandeliers, statues, goblet, vases that you would never put flowers in because they were too pretty.

We ended up buying some every day drinking glasses just not for an every day price. Only six of them, but they were pretty. They will be mailed homes so we don’t have to worry about breaking them in the commute back or figuring out how to pack them that would be a pain in the butt.

Our second stop was Burano, which is known for their lace-making and beautifully painted houses. In the 16th century the lace of Burano became the most famous in Europe and in 1872 was created the first school of lace, known as “Scuola dei Merletti.” Regarding the painted houses, the story it is that because of the fog and not so great weather that the families painted their houses bright colors so the fisherman when returning home could easily find their pink, purple or a yellow house easily. Mom was very excited when she learned that a Hallmark series she had seen had depicted lace making in Burano. It was called the Wedding Veil, John Kell, if you’re familiar with it.

Our boat ride back from Burano took a practically 50 minutes. It was a little cooler on the way over so we decided to sit downstairs undercover. That helped. Our tour guide discussed many of the other Venetian Islands and the role they play. Whether it’s artichoke farms, wineries, or monasteries, it was quite interesting. We even saw an island for sale for €600,000. Which technically doesn’t seem like that much but there used to be a monastery on the island but it’s now just half of a building. It’s also not a very big island. 

When we landed back in San Marco, we needed to catch a water bus home. That’s where things went wrong. The first water bus we hopped on took us to the airport- we were going the wrong way. So we got off at the train station figuring we could figure this out. Wrong! So we took another water bus back to San Marco and learned that we needed to take a completely different water bus. You see we landed in San Marco at 1:30 from our tour, but by the time we actually got to our stop, near home, it was 5:00. I was annoyed, grumpy, hungry, and tired of being on a stupid boat that wasn’t taking us to the right place. Ginger made friends with lots of men on the boat because she needed them to hold onto so she wouldn’t fall over. But no dates. It was also ridiculously crowded which means people were not as helpful.

We decided to stop at Osteria dei Sapori to eat dinner for fear that once we went to the apartment, we would in for the night. I had pasta with pesto and shrimp, Mom had a hamburger and fries with no roll. A hamburger is her standby food when she doesn’t know what to eat. We also had a Venetian appetizer called cicchetti. There are lots of different options, but they typically include tiny sandwiches, plates of olives or other vegetables, halved hard-boiled eggs, small servings of a combination of one or more of seafood, meat and vegetable ingredients laid on top of a slice of bread or polenta, and very small servings of typical full-course plates. They were tasty and fun.

We had a lovely stay in Venice, tonight we pack up because tomorrow we head to Florence.