Day 3 - Sunday, June 16 - Venice, Murano and Burano

Another beautiful sunny morning in Venice. The weather forecast is for sunny and temperatures between 60 and 70 as far as the forecast is available. I wonder when it rains here.

Murano is an island complex about 20 minutes by boat from the Venice train station. We are finally figuring out how to use the vaporetto boat system that is the main mode of transportation here. At the main station there is an electronic sign-board with indications of which landings to use for particular vaporetto lines.

Murano has been the home of Italian glass-blowing for centuries. For many years it was very closed in order to protect the secrets of the craft. Even now they are sensitive to protecting the intellectual property with signs asking people not to take photos of the glasswork. Much of it is glass sculpture with many colors that is very detailed. They also make functional products like chandeliers and wine glasses - you wouldn't want to break the wine glasses that go for $50 and up! The island is almost all shops and glassworks with some restaurants. Unfortunately, since it was Sunday, we weren't able to see the glassblowing being done.

We had a delightful lunch by the side of one of the canals. Carmen ordered an octopus salad but what she received was not what she expected. She expected small chopped up pieces of octopus on top of some greens - what she received was large whole tentacle pieces. It was surprisingly tender and tasty. I had spaghetti with scallops which was also good.



Venice and Murano

From Murano we took another boat to Burano which is about 40 minutes away. Burano is famous for its lace which was similarly protected for centuries. There are many shops selling beautiful lace but it is quite pricey - Jeanne was looking at a black dress for $500. Burano is also famous for the brightly colored buildings and a tall church tower that is leaning to one side.

Burano canal and buildings

Burano tower

From Burano we had to take the boat back to Murano and change to another boat back to the landing by our hotel. Scott and Jeanne didn't change boats (not planned) and ended up at San Marco on the other side of Venice. They walked back which takes 30-40 minutes. Amazingly, we ran into them on the street as we were leaving the supermarket and they were going to the supermarket - what are the odds of that?

After cleaning up, we went to a recommended restaurant for seafood which was very good. Carmen ordered mixed grilled seafood and was surprised to get a large grilled octopus tentacle on top of grilled fish. Strangely, Scott and Jeanne ordered the same dish and didn't get the octopus - there must be something about Carmen and Octopus. It was after 10pm by the time we finished dinner - Italian style of eating late!



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