Venice

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We took the train from Florence to Venice and got to Venice around lunch time. It was easy to find our hotel and we left to get a bite to eat. The Rick Steves travel book has been very helpful and we would recommend it. We had heard mixed reviews about Venice so our expectations were low.

For those of you that dont know, Venice was man made by driving piers into the clay underneath the ocean in 500 a.d. They did this to escape barbarian attacks. Really amazing.

Bad things about Venice--tourists (we cant imagine what it would be like in the hot-high travel season). Smell--the canals arent bad but there are some nasty smells that jump up from the grates in the walk. Sickness--people seem to get sick from the boats and miss the trash cans. Gross! Sort of like an amusement park. Street vendors & rose peddlers. They are more aggressive here. One guy was trying to sell us a rose and sliced my finger on the thorn.

Things we loved---I think we did a good job of staying away from the really touristy areas and seeing the nice side of the town. St. Marks was just okay compared to the other duomos-churches we have seen. The square was lovely at night. Its lite up and the cafes have dueling orchestras of 5 or 6 instruments. Its very romantic and nice to be here with each other. Burano (more later). The food was really good. We found mini sandwiches for 1.50 euro and also had great pizza. We tried our first beers and local white wine. It was our first white wine on the trip. We ate dinner on my birthday at one of Rick Steves suggestions. It was one of the BEST meals yet. We did our gondola ride late. In fact we might have been the only ones on the canal. The tide was high and it was dark. I was a little dissapointed that our pictures wouldnt turn out. Im sure we missed some pretty scenes. At the same time we think we experienced a side of Venice that tourists rarely see. It was so quiet we could hear some of the conversations the locals were having in their homes. There was a spookiness that was neat and romantic. We saw the real spirit of Venice. Our gondaleer was 21 and had two years experience. The job is a family tradition for him. Because the tide was so high we hit the bottom of a bridge. He couldnt stop laughing at his mistake. It is also amazing how they control the boat. He had to tip the boat really far sideways to get thru some of the other bridges.

We visited the island of Burano where they make lace. We stopped off in Murano first where they make glass. It was a quick stop because we had to switch boats and decided to take a quick walk. Burano was one of my favorite places so far. I took tons of pictures of the pastel houses. We had a great lunch here too and some local white wine from the island. One of our favorite days yet.

I cant wait to share more stories of our trip when we get home. There is so much to tell! We have posted more pictures so take a look at the previous blogs. Miss you all!

Love,

Meg and Joe

(sorry for spelling errors. limited time and no spell check!)

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Comments

[Kim]

Burano
Is this the one I liked so much and kept blabbering on about in my fabuloust journals?