Kerry, being the sweetheart that she is, dropped me off at Stansted Airport in the wee hours of the morning for my budget flight to Italy.
I arrived in Venice, backpack having grown just slightly heavier in England, and wandered around in the hot sun for a little while trying to find my hostel. I succeeded after some time and showered before I was ready for anything else.
Venice is great for wandering. It's filled with crooked little alleys, and interesting shops filled with jewelry and glass and theatrical bejeweled and feathered masks, and bridges over the canals. There are plenty of tourists too (me being one of them, I do realize...), but it's possible to escape from them.
I think I took in most of the major sights in Venice - St. Mark's Basilica & Square, the Doge's Palace, the Rialto Bridge markets, several magnificent churches - but just being there and people-watching and eating amazing gelato and bruschetta and listening to street musicians play made it fun.
On the last day, I took the Vaporetto to Murano and Burano. Murano is an island of glass-makers. In fact, in the 14th and 15th centuries, Murano glassmakers were forbidden to leave the Venetian Republic, on threat of death, so that the secrets of Murano glass-making would be kept local! You can visit the furnaces and watch artisans blow and manipulate hot glass into vases and lamps and jewelry and horse figurines. And of course there are galleries and shops and ristorantes and other ways to spend money. :-)
Burano - an island known for fishing and lace-making - is bursting with character and color. The little houses, all in rows, are painted in a rainbow of bright and cheery shades and make for incredible vistas with only blue sky and ocean for a backdrop.
I arrived in Venice, backpack having grown just slightly heavier in England, and wandered around in the hot sun for a little while trying to find my hostel. I succeeded after some time and showered before I was ready for anything else.
Venice is great for wandering. It's filled with crooked little alleys, and interesting shops filled with jewelry and glass and theatrical bejeweled and feathered masks, and bridges over the canals. There are plenty of tourists too (me being one of them, I do realize...), but it's possible to escape from them.
I think I took in most of the major sights in Venice - St. Mark's Basilica & Square, the Doge's Palace, the Rialto Bridge markets, several magnificent churches - but just being there and people-watching and eating amazing gelato and bruschetta and listening to street musicians play made it fun.
On the last day, I took the Vaporetto to Murano and Burano. Murano is an island of glass-makers. In fact, in the 14th and 15th centuries, Murano glassmakers were forbidden to leave the Venetian Republic, on threat of death, so that the secrets of Murano glass-making would be kept local! You can visit the furnaces and watch artisans blow and manipulate hot glass into vases and lamps and jewelry and horse figurines. And of course there are galleries and shops and ristorantes and other ways to spend money. :-)
Burano - an island known for fishing and lace-making - is bursting with character and color. The little houses, all in rows, are painted in a rainbow of bright and cheery shades and make for incredible vistas with only blue sky and ocean for a backdrop.
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