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After leaving the Florence hostel (without paying), we make our way to Venice. Again the train we needed to get on was completely booked so we chilled at the McDonalds for a couple hours. This posed a problem because we had an appointment with Mauro Vianello, a Murano (wiki Murano) glass blower. People from all over the world request him to form different glass sculptures. We didn’t have access to phones or e-mail so we decided to go anyways after we reach Venice and see if he’s still available. What we didn’t realize is that Venice will have one of the most intricate pathways to navigate.
We arrive in Venice and start looking for a map we can use. We find a souvenir shop and Sammy and Lopez decide to look at one of the maps they have available. After looking at the map for about 10 minutes, the storeowner walks up to them and tells them they have to buy the map now since they used it. Add 3 Euros to our budget. Now that we had a map to use, we thought it would be easy to find this glass shop. Little did we know that traveling
through the streets of Venice is similar to a mouse trying to find a cheese cube in a maize. Mauro Vianello was the cheese. Swiss cheese because of the different holes that make it difficult to navigate. (Side note: on the way to the glass shop, we find a market, which probably had the best strawberries I’ve ever eaten.)
Anyways, after making about 200 turns, we finally find Mauro Vianello. He was very welcoming considering we were about an hour late. His shop was pretty small. There was barely enough room to walk with our backpacks sprawled across the floor. We also had to be very careful walking around. After all it was a glass store and there were glass sculptures everywhere. We walked in to the store as he was just starting to make a dolphin (pictures and video will be uploaded soon). It started off as a glass sphere. It’s difficult to describe in words how the glass sphere is molded into a dolphin. 20-30 minutes later, the final product is a grey dolphin. He puts it into an oven overnight, and it’s ready for the consumer the next day.
After he finished, we began to take time to look at all the other sculptures he had. Everything from penguins (!!!!!!) to aquariums (2400 Euros) to mushrooms. It was also kind of pricey. A small glass doodad (smaller than the length of your finger) was about 20-25 Euros. Mauro Vianello was also quite the blogger. We told him about our blog and he said that he’ll write about us if we write about him (promotional objective).
After visiting the glass shop, we decide to head back to the hostel, drop off our bags, and find a place to eat. This will be our first experience with a water taxi. There are very few cars and taxis in Venice. Most transportation is through these sea taxis. We hop on board and make our way to the hostel. Luckily we find a pizzeria right next to our hostel. We get a margherita pizza to-go and eat along the river (our hostel was right along the river). It was pretty relaxing: eating a margherita pizza, drinking a coca-cola and watching the gondolas float by as the sun set. Twas very romantic.
We relax for a bit and head back to our rooms. We had a list of tasks that we had to complete in preparation for the next couple days (21-hr ferry ride and Greek Island logistics). We finish our to-do list and start getting ready to explore the streets of Venice. After all, Venice is the city to get lost in. After doing some research, Piazza San Marco was apparently the place to be in the evening with various concerts and street performances. We take a water taxi back to the mainland and start roaming around slowly making our way to the plaza. At the plaza, we encounter a few people playing piano and violin for people eating dinner. They were very talented. Then in the distance we hear a few fireworks. We run to the river and get to see a fireworks show. We head back to the plaza when things start to die down and hit up the shops. The shops were mainly souvenir shops consisting of Murano glass trinkets. These people are so talented.
After the shops, my foot began to hurt really bad (long story) and I was limping. Of course, it had to start raining. Sammy and Zuny sprint for cover but Lopez was kind enough to walk with me. The rain was our sign to call it a night. We had an early train to head to Ancona for our 21-hr ferry ride to Patras, Greece. We head back to the hostel wishing we had just one more day in the city that’s sinking into the water.
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