We took the high speed train to Venice.  It didn’t feel like we were on a high speed train and it took two and a half hours to travel from Milan to Venice. There were seven stops along the way.  We had assigned seats and our bags easily fit above us. The tickets were about 49 euros each for coach class.  The seats were fine, but there was no AC on the train.  

After arriving in Venice we bought tickets for the public water transportation to our hotel.  After watching so many movies and tv shows set in Venice, it was unreal to be there.  We arrived at the hotel a little before 1, so our room was not ready, but we were able to leave our bags there.  We were hungry, so we set out to grab a quick bite to eat.  My husband found a take away place that had high ratings on google. After eating a slice of semi warm pizza, I have no idea why people liked it so much.  I stopped to get a gelato to make up for a ho hum lunch. We wandered the streets and took many pictures.  

After we returned to our hotel to relax a bit before heading out again for dinner.  It was an okay meal and we were charged extra just for going there an sitting down. I don’t understand all these strange taxes that are given here.  There were A LOT of people wandering the streets.  We went to St. Mark’s Square, which was mobbed. Mistakenly, we thought there were such large crowds because it was Sunday.  Not true. 

On Monday morning we had our all day tour scheduled.  We had to be at St. Mark’s Square at 8:30. There were supposed to be only 20 people on our tour, but I’m pretty sure there were 22.  We walked down to where the boat was docked and headed to the island of Murano.  Our tour guide told us all about the area around Venice.  There are 118 islands.  Our boat could only go in between the channel markers because that was where the water was actually deep enough.  There was a section she pointed out as where all the locals live as well as the park that they all visited.  The island of Murano is known worldwide for its production of glass.  The most famous glass maker today, Dale Chihuly, studied there for ten years before moving back to the United States.  He now lives in Seattle, which is the second most well known place for glass production.  

We disembarked at the glass factory.  They brought us to where the master glass maker was working.  He had two assistants.  If you have ever been to a class to blow glass or work it in any way, you would understand how very difficult it is to do.  The master glass maker made it look so simple.  He was making a custom chandelier.  The pieces were like hooks and he spun them and added some extra flair.  It only took him a couple of minutes.  I had a difficult time rolling the hot glass on the table when I did it! Then they gave us free time to look around the showrooms and/or walk into town.  

The glass pieces in the showrooms were phenomenal, but we were not allowed to take any pictures.  I should have thought to take a picture of the chandeliers in the area where they were making glass. They had all kinds of animals and decorative vases and just regular glasses.  Everything was unreal expensive.  One shot glass cost  90 euros! Needless to say, we did not purchase anything. 

We had about twenty minutes left before we had to board the boat.  We walked down into town and took some pictures.  We stepped inside the church and found it full of hand blown glass chandeliers!  At least I got one picture!

Our next stop was the island of Burano. It took about 15-20 minutes on the boat.  The island is mostly fishermen.  The painted the houses different colors so they would be able to differentiate where they lived more easily.  It makes for a beautiful visit. You just feel so happy walking around looking at all these amazing colors.  

We had about an hour to explore.  They gave us the option to watch a lace demonstration.  Apparently only 6 ladies on the island do it anymore and there are seven different techniques used to do it. The man who explained it to us was very attractive, but did not know how to simply explain how to make the lace in English.  It was also super expensive, which I understand since it’s made by hand. 

We stopped at a cafe to get a bite to eat and then wandered around the island.  It’s not very big.  Our guide said we could talk the length of it in ten minutes. It also has the third most leaning tower in Italy.  It leans about 6 feet. They have stabilized it, but  you can no longer climb it. 

It took about 45 minutes to get back to Venice.  We sat in the front of the boat and it only had one window, so it was really stuffy.  I took a nap.  We landed near St. Mark’s Square.  We had about an hour to wander around before we had to meet up for the next tour.  I wanted to coffee to help keep me awake, so we stopped at a bar and sat for a few minutes.  It also gave us a chance to use the restrooms. 

We met again at the same spot for the afternoon tour.  Our guide, Felipe, had a very dry sense of humor. He made me laugh a lot.  They gave us ear pieces and he told us some information about Venice that our previous tour guide already told us before we went into the Doge Palace.  He also told us about how the city deals with flooding.  They put down wooden planks and let it flood a bit because it costs so much to put the barriers up to stop it.  I wouldn’t want to be there during the rainy season. 

The Doge Palace is where the ruler, Doge, lived. He was chosen for the amount of money had (he was required to keep up the palace and add to it as well as throw gold coins to the citizens of Venice).  He also needed to be over 70 years old.  Not for the wisdom age, but because being a Doge was for life and they didn’t want him to live long! 

The palace had all kinds of cool secret passageways to ferret the Doge out and a moments notice and even a secret door so whisk away prisoners.  We also were able to walk over the Bridge of Sighs and see if from the inside.  The prison cells would hold about 20 prisoners, so our whole group stood in one together. 

After the palace, we walked over to the Basilica.  The ridiculous thing about this grandiose church is that ONLY the Doge was able to use it.  The mosaics on the floor were so impressive, they looked like carpets from afar.  And the ceilings were unbelievable.  

We also had a gondola ride as part of the tour.  We chatted with another couple from Florida and requested to ride with them on the boat.  It was a little tippy at first, like a kayak, but they it evened out.  It was so peaceful when we went down the side canals without all the traffic.  I enjoyed it. 

We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was fine, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  We sat for a bit outside our hotel to relax before heading to bed early.  It was a long day. 

The next morning we had breakfast in the garden, much later in the morning. We decided to buy a pass for the water ferries for 24 hours. First we checked out this neat bookstore. They had books in bathtubs, books in boats, and you even got to climb the books.  I would have liked it better if there were some English books!  

I didn’t want to hang out anywhere near St. Mark’s or Rialto because the mob of people was very off putting.  Instead, we went to  Scoula di San Rocco where many Tintoretto paintings are displayed. The rooms were magnificent.  I loved all the wood carvings. You could borrow a mirror from the table and see the ceiling paintings so well.  We climbed to the treasury (which has a lot of relics of saints such as fingers), which I happened to get a picture of along with the impressive hand blown glass chandelier.  

We grabbed a quick lunch and wandered around stopping in some shops.  There was an impressive mask shop in which they were working on decorating the masks at the back of the store.  We rode the water ferry over to the island of San Giorgio.  They had several art exhibitions that I found interesting.  One was sculpture and the other was glass.  We had a really fun time riding along the water.  We did that for a good amount of our day.  We saw a lot of things that we would not have noticed had we just walked the streets. 

Venice was a really neat city to visit. It felt very other worldly. I enjoyed walking the tiny streets and crossing all the canals. The number of people that were visiting though was off putting. It made it difficult to walk the streets that had the more popular places to visit. However, I think that staying away from those areas really made us explore and it was well worth it.