Heart of Glass

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An earlier start for today as we headed out straight after breakfast to Arsenale to catch the vaporetto to Murano. The 40 minute journey was pleasant as we were able to see another part of the island as well as the cemetery island. At Murano we wandered along the streets, window shopping and revelling in the relative serenity of the island which has fewer tourists than Venice. We eventually found the Museo de Vetro, the glass museum, and were surprised to find how similar some of the first century glassware is to our own. The glassware on display that was made on the island was incredible - so intricate and creative across the 7 or so centuries since glassmaking began on Murano. We then wandered along past more shops to the end of the canal that separates the island, stopping for a drink before catching a vaporetto back to stop near the museo so I could buy a pretty necklace I'd seen and then onward to the first stop so we could look inside some of the shops that had been closed before. Some of the work was creative, some incredible, some intricate, some repetitive, some boring, some ugly and some lovely! I bought another necklace which was on the funky side and a pair of earrings that are beautiful.

We headed back to Venice on a very crowded vaporetto and had a short break at our hotel before heading out at around 3pm in search of food. We were looking for cicchetti (Venetian tapas), but to no avail. Instead we had a very late lunch and very early dinner at Caffe Vergnano in San Polo near the Rialto bridge. I'm glad we stopped there as the food was very good. A little more expensive than the tourist places, but only by 2 or 3 euro and very yummy gnocchi. My parents both had risotto which they also said was good. The proseco was pretty good too. We were enjoying the very cool breeze when we realised that storm clouds were coming. As we walked from Rialto to San Marco it started to rain and our plan of window shopping (and mine of actual shopping) became untenable as the rain kept getting heavier. I did find a very nice blue felt hat, sadly it was 238 euro! And we bought a few presents for my nieces and nephew, but the rain only eased for a few minutes before pouring again. We decided to head back to the hotel, stopping near the Arsenale stop to take in the view of the storm over Venice (including some rainbows). We also stopped at a deli to buy some snacks for the evening (yummy biscuits). I thought I'd lie down for a little when we got home and ended up falling asleep around 8pm! Sunday is our last full day in Venice and it feels like we haven't seen much or done much. You could easily spend 10 days here and not get bored.

x Sarah

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