It was a foggy start to the day in Venice this morning… and as I have now found out that means the fog will hang around most of the day. Thankfully, it was a little cooler as well. So after breakfast it was off to learn lesson one on the Vaporetto.
Buying a seven day ticket does not equal having a Seven day ticket… so when the ticket guy came through the cabin and we confidently handed over our seven day tickets… which were apparently not validated… 52 Euro fine each! Good start. It’s OK though … I have written them a letter to tell them how angry I am! That aside… we arrived at Murano… another of the islands in the Venice lagoon. Murano is famous for it’s glassware …
We embarked on one of the walks from the phone app that Deb bought… which took us to some of the churches and the oldest glass furnaces. There is an excellent museum that had some pieces dating back to the time of Jesus… but the Murano industry really gathered pace in the 1400’s. We saw some beautiful glassware in the shop windows, but sadly it seems that many of the cheaper items are imported from China.
After our wander around Murano… we caught a ferry back … with our properly validated Vaporetto tickets and had lunch at a restaurant (La Codrama) that was owned by a friend of Anna… who initially showed us to the apartment. We both had the gnocchi … followed by Tiramisu, which was very good.
We then walked to see the Peggy Guggenheim collection. Having seen the Solomon Guggenheim collection in New York … I didn’t expect it would take long. There was some interesting sculpture and a couple of Jackson Pollock’s … but Modern Art is seemingly largely lost on me, I have to say. There was a terrace that provides views of the Grand Canal.
From there we walked around the area … there is a large church … and many specialty shops … As the high tide approached we could see the ongoing problem that Venice faces… as it fights against the rising ocean … or a sinking city?
The weather started close in a bit… so we decided to head back to the apartment … with the obligatory emergency Gelati stop on the way. We checked the Pizza place is open … so all clear to be ‘Pizza Piggies’ to coin a phrase from one of my more uncharitable friends… on our last night in Italy.
I’ll leave you with just one more another Grand Canal photo…
Until tomorrow
Rob
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 