Venice 3

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Thursday continued

We rested up for a while and then headed down for dinner, we both ended up with the suggested menu, which was as follows -

potato dumplings, with wild mushrooms, in roast sauce
roasted pork fillet, wrapped in bacon, with potatoes and courgettes
mango confit, with rhubarb
with ½ litre of water, a glass of wine, with coffee to finish

All for €26.00 each, it was lovely, and Pat drank both glasses of wine, I had diet coke.

We surfed the net for a while and downloaded another blog. The wireless connection is only downstairs in reception, so we sat there for a while.

Pat has found a possible option for our next accommodation. The plan is that on Saturday, we have another long drive and head for Florence. We have found a recommendation, which looks ok from it's website and we have emailed for availability and price, which we are awaiting a response.

Friday, 31st October, 2008

The plan for today is to do Venice. St. Mark's is on the list, possibly the glass stuff at Murano.

We left the Hotel about ten o'clock, and having received directions from the reception, headed off for the bus stop.

I would have to describe the weather today as English - wet and miserable!

We got talking to a family on the bus, who said it had snowed as they came away from the UK last week, so it is still better here.

The rain apparently is in a band which we should be below tomorrow, and heading even further south, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyway, we made it into Venice and arrived at the Piazzale Roma and purchased a 12 hour one day pass, for the buses and vaporetto's, which was €13.00 each. We hadn't been asked to pay for the bus in and never had to show the pass once in all the journeys we did, but better to be on the safe side.

Pat wanted to visit the Island of Murano first, to see all the famous glass stuff. So we headed off on a Number 42 Vaporetto, from Piazzale Roma to Murano. For those not in the know the vapororetto is a bus service but by small boats. They work around Venice the same way the tube does in London.

So we headed into open water and across to Murano, half the fun of using the vaporetto's is to see everything as you go along.

We got off at Murano Museo and walked for a short while, stood and had a quick cheese sandwich and coffee, and then went to the Glass Museum. A fascinating place, telling how the various processes of glass manufacture evolved and how glass is made. Also many glass items from antiquity and some incredible stuff donated by the Glass Houses on the Island, showing off their skills. There were some truly breathtaking pieces.

We then looked around some of the shops and factory outlets, and Pat bought a small piece.

Whilst out and about we heard from the Hotel in Florence that they were full, so we will need to do some surfing later.

The weather was still unpleasant so we headed back to Venice from the Murano Navagero stop, on the number 5, to San Marco. This was a longer ride and again we got a chance to do some sightseeing.

At Saint Marks Square, we went and handed our backpacks into the appropriate place before being allowed into St Mark's Basilica,

They don't charge for entrance, but as soon as you are inside you have to see any of the various bits & pieces. Pat had read about the Treasury, which was stuff they had looted from Constantinople at some stage and we did pay the €3.00 each for this. There were some lovely pieces, and also lots of parts of Saints and the Holy cross, etc.

The Basilica itself is very dark and gloomy. The floor, which you get to see most of, is mostly marble mosaic and an outstanding sight. We didn't spend too much time in here, as we didn't feel interested enough to see many of the items that required additional payment.

We collected our backpacks in under the allowed one hour and made a small donation, as requested.

We stopped in the American Bar on the corner opposite the Basilica and had some more sandwiches and a couple of Lattes, before touring the shops around St. Mark's square. There is a mixture of high quality, designer and quality name shops, mixed with art galleries, tons of glass shops, and souvenir shops, with some very up themselves restaurants with their little orchestra's. All making a very interesting combination.

We walked back through to the San Rialto, allowing us to look a little more around Venice. We the got another vaporetto back to the Piazzale Roma, to save our legs.

Again following the Hotels directions we found our bus, which was the one showing Treviso, luckily it was waiting and had plenty of empty seats and set off about ten minutes after we had got on. We got off at our stop a short way from the Hotel.

We plan on eating in the Hotel again this evening, and try to book our next accommodation, which is at the moment due to be in Florence, hopefully for two nights.

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