Monday, November 9, 2015

Day 6: Venice, Part One


What an amazing day we had in Venice! It truly was everything we had hoped it would be. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then walked to meet the boat that would take us to the Island of Murano




 Murano is less than a mile away from Venice and is known for its glassmaking. In 1291 all the glass artisans were moved to the island in order to help prevent fires in Venice. Afterwards, they were not allowed to leave the island and return. Murano wanted to keep its glass-working secrets to itself. We visited a workroom and watched an artisan first make a vase... 



and then, like magic, made a horse appear from a molten piece of glass.




Afterwards we visited the showroom where we marveled at all the artwork and picked some pieces out.  Our finds deserve a post of their own, so I'll share them later!


Afterwards it was back to the boat!


It was a perfect day to visit Venice...beautiful sunshine and wonderful blue water everywhere.



We were so lucky that these weren't needed while we were there...when it rains the sidewalks flood...and they put out these for people to walk on!



While walking to the Doge's Palace we saw the Bridge of Sighs...it has a romantic legend, but was named because it was the last thing convicts saw before their imprisonment.



I took this photo a while later while we walked over the bridge ourselves.



Afterwards we saw the pigeons in St Mark's Square.





The palace, and Saint Mark's Basilica afterwards, were beautiful...but the water views were the highlight for us.



After a morning full of touring  we were off to have a quick lunch. The tour manager mentioned a great place to grab pizzas and the like, and I had an amazing pizza with ham and arugula.


I only wish I'd had the room to eat more of it!

After lunch we were back in the whirlwind...look forward to filling you in next post!

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