friday, july 13

this morning we woke up at 9:30am (awesome!) and had a huge, beautiful, free breakfast provided by the hotel. thank goodness for that.

the plan for the day was to go on a boat tour of the islands around venice: murano, burano, and torcello. we get to the train station in venice and find out that there is a strike, so there were about four ferries for all of venice. we were worried that we would miss our tour, so we opted to take a water taxi, which was more expensive than you could possibly imagine a ten minute boat ride could be. but we got there, and began our tour.

sign seen on the way to our tour. at least they have a sense of propriety.

murano is an island known for its glass. we filed into a little shop and watched a small italian man blow glass. it was incredible the way he made it look so easy. it starts out as a blob of molten glass, and by the end it was a thin glass bowl with scalloped edges.

the glass, in rod form

the glass goes from this...

to this

after the demonstration we were herded into a shop that sells the objects made in the studio. most of the stuff was gaudy and over priced, but there were a few bowls that were simple and beautiful. too bad i did not have an extra five hundred euro to spend on glass. here's a great story: i was looking at some big, fat rings (big glass blobs glued onto cheap metal bands) in the shop. as i went to put one back, the lady in front of me bumped me and i dropped the ring on the marble floor, where it broke. the glass blob was fine, but it broke off the band. i felt like such an idiot, and it didn't help that the woman who had bumped me saw that the ring had broken, made a comment about how they were cheap, and decided she didn't want a ring anymore. the lady behind the counter was shooting daggers at me. i thought she was going to murder me. but she didn't make me buy it. it made me feel like i did when we were in salzburg at a cafe and the lady came up and asked us in english if we wanted any cakes, and then i asked her if she spoke english. i am such a jerk. in my defense, i was not paying attention and she had a very thick accent, and it was not my fault i dropped the ring.

burano, our next stop, is a fishing village with beautiful brightly colored houses, and old ladies that make lace.

fishing boat in burano burano houses

we had lunch, walked around, looked at lace handkerchiefs, and saw an old lady making lace. i wanted to get a handkerchief, but the one i wanted was 150 euros because it was made by hand and took ten days to make. so that was out. we also walked down a small canal where i saw three old ladies on a bench feeding pigeons. i wish i could have sat with them and enjoyed the moment, but there was no time.

our last stop was torcello, famous for the mosaics in the cathedral there. we didn't get to see the mosaics because we were pressed for time, but we did get to walk around and see the outside.when we got back we ate dinner on the grand canal at the ristorante principessa. then we had gelato and watched people set up the speaker system for the big fireworks show on sunday. i bought a mache mask, and we went back to our hotel. it was a nice day.