Tales of Murano, Burano and Torcello Islands

Our last day in Venice was spent exploring some of the nearby islands: Murano, Burano and Torcello.  It was an absolutely beautiful day - sunny and warm - much nicer than the on and off rain we had most of the time in Venice itself.

Murano - famous for their glass . . . and tourists. Place was pretty crowded and the glass blowing exhibits all tourist traps so we didn't stop in. It was Easter Monday so they were ready and primed to take a lot of tourist money. Still, a really pretty place.

Courtyard sculptures at one of the glass shops.

More glass sculpture on display.

A view of 'downtown' Murano.

Public square art.

As I said, a really beautiful day.

The blue star which was commissioned for Christmas a few years ago.

Torcello - tiny little island with a church and some grassy fields and a few restaurants. We had hoped to have lunch here, but it was so crowded that literally every restaurant was booked. Beautiful walk though.

The walk into 'town' from the boat dock. Seems to be boat parking all along the canal.

Old church in the center of the island.

Sculpture garden and grape vines.

Church tower

Another view of the church - there wasn't much else to photograph! 

Burano - is known for it's colorful houses. I think this island had the most character and didn't seem quite as crowded - although maybe we were just getting used to it.

I like this photo because it gives you a sense of how close and crowded everything feels.

And then it was back to Venice for a very late lunch/ early dinner. Thank goodness for gelato to keep us from starving! ;)

More Venice Views

We didn't really 'do' a lot of things in Venice itself. The Doge's tour and the Peggy Guggenheim museum, but actually we just wandered a lot. Here are a few more views of the city.

 The Rialto bridge - the first bridge to connect the sides of the canal. This isn't the original, which was made of wood and burned down 2-3 times before they commissioned one in stone. There are shops along the center of the bridge - all tourist junk unfortunately.

 This is the grand canal through Venice and the boat in the photo is the Vaporetto (think city bus) at one of the landing stations on the canal. You can walk most everywhere but the Vaporetto is faster - and of course more interesting.

 Like Rome, there are public drinking fountains all over the city. No problems drinking from the taps here!

Another shot of Rialto bridge from the other side of the canal.

The gorgeous canals of Venice

They are everywhere and the views are just amazing. Here are only a few of those I took during the trip. Enjoy!

 We decided not to do a gondola ride. We had done a little research in advance and were warned that they were very expensive and that they weren't the romantic, glide through the canals with the gondolier singing in the background that you see in the movies. And after having a look, they were right. The canals were crowded with boats, we didn't hear a single note from any of the gondoliers and those of us on the bridges and streets are constantly gawking and taking photos. Not too romantic at all.

St Mark's and the Doge's Palace

Our first tourist activity was a 'secret places' tour of the Doge's Palace. The Doge was the ruler of Venice and lived and worked out of the palace. Our secret tour was with a cranky old women who was very knowledgeable and very strict. Stay with the group, don't touch anything, don't lean against the doors or windows and 'no jokes'. Little did she realise she was the biggest joke of all. Still, an interesting and informative tour.

The ground floor and the top floor held prisoners and this is one of the cells. When the prison wasn't crowded, this would hold up to 4 people, but when crowded, it would hold 10.

This is one of the large halls where documents were processed. Imagine this filled with about 20 desks of men copying documents by hand. They were all stored in the cupboards around the room. This room held all the most secret documents of the Venetian governments like treaties, contracts and land and property deeds. They still have all this paper, but I doubt there's much you can do with it now. Too fragile to even scan it for online storage, I would imagine.

You can't really see this very well, but she took us up into the attic area and showed us the massive support beams that run along the ceiling of one of the great halls you'll see below in a later photo.

This cell belonged to Casanova - yep, he was real and incarcerated right here for seducing other men's wives. He was sentences to 5 years in prison, but escaped after 1.5 with the help of a metal bar stashed in a plate of pasta and a fellow prisoner.

One of the more ornate rooms of the palace and used by the Doge. You can see two cabinets in the back corners of the room. There are four of these in each corner and one leads to the prison cells. The room next to this is where they would hold torture sessions of the prisoners.

This is one of the great halls of the Palace and the one whose beams were in the photograph above. Very ornate walls and ceilings.

And within the same area is St Mark's Basilica - a beautiful church with a line at least a mile long. We decided to skip going inside, but here are a few pics of the courtyard and basilica.

Tales of Venice

There are two public holidays aligned with Easter in the UK - Good Friday and Easter Monday, and the University where I work has a third closure day on the Tuesday. That means it's a good time for the Stolls to travel. And this trip was to Venice and Croatia.

Venice is an amazing city - no cars, narrow streets and canals everywhere. I have so many photos of bridges over canals . . . The city was pretty crowded for Easter weekend, but we managed okay, got lost a few times (which is actually listed as a tourist must-do in many of the guidebooks) and enjoyed the views. Food not so much - not like Rome where I thought the food was fantastic. Venetian food was just okay.

We stayed at an Airbnb instead of a hotel, which we typically prefer as you get a lot more space and feel a bit more like a local. Ours was in a narrow alleyway, which we never would have found without someone to guide us. We even did a few practice rounds around the block the first morning to make sure we could find our way back! :)

And I couldn't help but wonder how people get things like beds and couches and appliances through those narrow streets and up all those narrow staircases?? Yes, everything is much smaller and compact, but still.

First bridge view when we arrived. Don't worry, there will be many many more before I'm done with these posts.

This is the door to our apartment. Can you see why we'd be worried about getting lost and never finding it again?

First morning's breakfast. Like much of Italy, the coffee was great and you pay one price to drink at the counter and a higher price to sit in the cafe. We opted for little croissants sandwiches and coffee at the counter. We felt so Venetian!

And of course there was gelato almost every afternoon. I'd still take Wisconsin frozen custard any day, but gelato will certainly do in a pinch.