Murano, Glass Blowing
After another nice buffet breakfast, we first walked to a glass blowing demonstration at a nearby factory. It was amazing how quickly they were able to create beautiful pieces. The demonstration was followed by a guide taking us into their showroom where they showed off their glassware. We were then given time to shop/browse the store.
Venice Island
We then took a large water taxi boat to the main island of Venice.
St Marks Square
We were escorted to St. Marks Square where we met a local guide to walk through St. Marks Basilica, Doge’s Palace, and the Bridge of Sighs. The tour guide used a lot of humor to create a picture of a proud Venetian people that were proud of their history and their long-running Republic.
Gondola Ride
Once the tour was over, we were escorted to some Gondolas where the tour directory had arranged for five gondolas to take us through the canals as well as an accordion player and singer. We shared the gondola with one other couple and though the ride was short, it was a lot of fun and definitely a bucket list item.
Self Guided Tour
Afterward, we had several hours of free time to wander around Venice on our own so we picked out a big loop that would take us to the Rialto bridge and to the far side of the island. We had to walk at a pretty brisk rate to make it back to the meeting point for our taxi ride back to Murano. The island was full of narrow winding streets and dead ends that we had to backtrack on but we made it back with plenty of time. While we waited for the rest of the group, we had a couple of beers and talked with a very nice Turkish tour guide at the nearby table.
Murano
When we got back to Murano, we decided to walk around this island. Besides the factory area, most of the island seemed residential and we saw people with children playing in the various piazzas and local parks. There did not seem to be very many open restaurants, but we finally found one with the hotels and tour director’s help. The restaurant had a really nice courtyard in the rear that we did not notice when we first saw the restaurant. Part of our group was actually already there, and most of the rest of the group arrived about 20 minutes after we did. Lisa and I ordered pizza and beers for dinner and it was very good.