Monday, October 17, 2011

Day Twenty Five - The Start of Venice



So today we slept in and when I say slept in I mean really slept in … we left the hotel at 11.30am which is nearly scandalous so im hoping my lovely mother misses this post.

We left the hotel late and ambled (See after 24 days im finding all sorts of words to replace wander) for an hour or so until we made it to the main square. Hubby had decided that there isn’t much to actually do in Venice other than shop (Something he is rather keen to avoid with my track record) so I desperately perused the tourist office brochures for things to keep him entertained for 48 hours. I found a tour that takes you to Murano, Burano and another island that surprisingly doesn’t rhyme with the first two. It left in an hour so we booked, found ice cream and made our way aboard.


Murano is cool … this is where you see just how the famous glass blowing is done and then get shown around a very expensive studio where you are supposed to be so over awed with the process you lose all inhibitions and spend up big on items that are just going to cause you stress when you try to take them home.



Next we went to Burano, which was my personal favorite for the day. This is a tiny little island where the houses are painted in the cutest brightest colours and the tourist item for the hour is lace. I did buy laces and I also brought my nana a hanky. (all nanas seem to have a stack of hankies so I brought her one so over embroidered she will never use it but treasure it forever)

The next island was the one I just cant remember and don’t have wifi yet so cant even look it up. This one was the home to a church but after a 15 minute walk to the church we decided to just turn around and make our way back to the boat. Don’t get me wrong im sure it was a lovely church but hubby and I had something of a break through. He decided to tell me that even though he appreciates everything he has seen, churches, squares and palaces have now taken on the same sort of lack of appeal we used to feel after our 24th visit to temples during trips to Bali, Phuket and Vietnam. Although I will never ever admit it out loud a town square no longer has the wow factor it did at the beginning of our trip.

Now earlier in the day we received a call from some lovely Americans we met and drank with during the train from Rome and after some negotiating we agreed to catch up for dinner. 7.30 sounded perfectly reasonable at mid day but after a very late boat arrival we had under an hour to get from the jetty to the hotel, get showered and dressed and then back to Rialto bridge to meet. If you can imagine both hubby and I running up and down stairs over bridges, dodging tourists strolling (quite rightly) and desperately negotiation a rabbit warren of small alleys as we try to make our way to our hotel.

Surprisingly we made it and had a lovely dinner with two new friends while trying out very “Australian” sayings over a few drinks. We did both agree that the food we have experienced so far in Italy has not quite lived up to our expecations. Maybe they were too high to begin with but to be honest I have had better Italian food in Berlin and Prague. Obviously my tastes are based on the type of Italian I have experienced in Australia and they in America but all of the food we have eaten has been bland and maybe overly simple. Oh well, it does mean we are overcompensating of our taste shortages with ice cream so really can I complain?

On our way back I found the most amazing glasses in the most out there colours imaginable. Tomorrow we may well have to stop and try and see if we can get them home because “I want them”!

Tomorrow is also a walking tour, basilica tour and the Douges palace tour and im really looking forward to them but another early start.

No comments: