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Published: October 25th 2006
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Day 6 - Venice
First thing in the morning we caught a boat to the main island of Venice to re-visit Piazza San Marco's in daylight. It was soooooo much busier during the day and there were hundreds of pigeons. The great thing is though, that there is no traffic. There are no roads on these islands so hence no cars. The only form of transport other then walking, is by gondola, ferry or some other boat.
After a quick orientation from Red Bull and photos of the San Marco Basilica, the Bell Tower and the square itself, we wandered down the side streets to Vecchia Murano - a Murano Glassware shop. Murano is a Venetian island where Italy's leading glassmakers live. We saw the most incredible glassware, dishes, vases, ornaments, etc and we were given a demonstration on glass-blowing. The glassmaker produced a jug complete with handle from a lump of glass in about 10minutes. Not bad.
We then went back to the square where the tour all split up to head off on their own ways.
We four (the GAGS team :-) headed towards the Rialto Bridge but were distracted by the many shops,
Piazza San Marco
St Mark's Square with the Basilica and the Bell Tower in the background that is until Giovanni got fed up and hurried us up. We took a few photo's from the bridge and then managed to find a quaint canal-side restaurant where we ordered a jug of wine, and I had a yummy risotto. It was a lovely atmosphere and we spent a good part of the afternoon eating, drinking, people watching, and gossiping.
It was starting to get late so we headed back, only to stumble across the shops again. I bought a Mask and a Salvidore Dali clock, which looks like a clock that has melted. By the time we got back to the Square we only had a short time before meeting the rest of the tour, so Amy and I decided to quickly check out the Doge's Palace (Palazza Ducale). The palace was largely constructed from 1309 to 1424 and was the residence of the Doge (chief magistrate and leader of the Most Serene Republic of Venice). It was amazing but we sort of did the running tour.
We met up with the rest of the group for our Gondola trip. The GAGS joined the El Dirte's on our 'romantic' gondola journey. It wasn't very romantic for
the El Dirte's though with the rest of us giggling away ;-) The group was split over several gondolas and one also had on board a singer and an accordian player. So as we floated along the canals we were serenaded with traditional Italian songs. We went off the beaten track and saw where the locals lived. It's such a beautiful place and there are hundreds of bridges. It was a nice relaxing experience.
We then got on to a bigger boat and went for a cruise through the Lagoon. Our boat driver (who looked like a 70s Porn Star) was quite taken with the girls and was an endless source of entertainment ;-) We went past the Island of Murano (the land of the glassblowers) and then onto Burano which is the Island of the Fisherman. It's also famous for its lace making. The buildings are all brightly coloured - apparently so the fishermen can pick out their own houses while out fishing. Burano also has it's own leaning tower - it's Bell Tower. This island was a lot less touristy (thank goodness) and there were more locals around and kids were playing in the streets.
We
bought some more knick-knacks and then headed to a local trattoria for dinner. We had another fantastic night. We were given many carafes of local wine and had several courses for dinner including lasagna, salad, risotto, fish, calamari and prawns, chips, biscuits that you dip in wine, and a bottle of Amaretto. The waiter was cute and an Italian girl dining at the restaurant wrote out a message in Italian for Amy to give to him, which translated to 'I'm enamoured with you. Will you marry me?' He looked a bit shocked but took it well and we managed to get a photo of him with Amy.
It was such a good night and at the end we caught a boat back as the sun set over the calm sea.
It was a raucous trip home on the bus after all that wine. It's lucky that we have such a top crowd. Even Red Bull is getting into it.
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Marge
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Thanks
Enjoyed your entry and since I was in Venice less than a month ago, see that you were right on with the photos and descriptions. We ate at the same restaurant in Burano but you managed to do more than we did. So, you filled in the blanks. Good!