Wednesday night (after part 1 of the Venice blog post), Lisa and Kaela took in a concert (Vivaldi’s Four Seasons) in the church by our hotel. The concert didn’t start until 9, so Nathan and I opted to retire to the hotel to read Bugalugs Bum Thief.
Thursday morning started with a trip (by water taxi) to the island of Murano. Since the boat had the words “limousine taxi” stenciled on it, the trip fulfilled a long-standing request from Kaela to ride in a limousine. Murano is where Venice’s famous glass-blowing industry is located (the industry was off-shored from Venice to Murano 700 years ago because of fire risks and smoke pollution). Like Venice, Murano is an island (or islands) cross-cut by several canals, with narrow walkways and plazas for streets: travel is by boat or on foot – no cars. Unlike Venice, more than half the storefronts in Murano are glass shops. After spending a bit of time at one of the factories watching the glass-blowing, we tried to strike a balance between looking in various shops and finding places where the kids could move around without causing too much damage. There are few pictures from Murano, because shops won’t let you take pictures for proprietary reasons. And also because when we were getting ready to leave in the morning we couldn’t find our camera…
After lunch we returned to Venice by vaporetto and then retraced our steps from the night before in an effort to find our camera. First we went back to the restaurant where we had dinner, but no luck. Then we managed to find the place where we sat down but didn’t have dinner, because their kitchen didn’t open until 7. Not only did we find the place (an accomplishment in itself – this is Venice, remember), but the bartender immediately recognized us and handed back the camera. It felt like an episode from the Amazing Race (“contestants must navigate Venice’s narrow streets until they find this restaurant. When they do, the bartender will hand them their next clue.”) Special thanks to the Devil’s Forest Pub – visit the next time you are in Venice (after 7 pm).
Our camera retrieved, we wandered Venice’s streets a little more and then went back to our hotel for a rest. That night we planned to go to a recommended restaurant on Venice’s south side (aka the Dorsoduro), overlooking the Canale Giudecca. Part of the reason for doing this was to take a “traghetto” across the Grand Canal. (A traghetto is basically a gondola without seats, that goes back and forth across the Grand Canal at various points, and, because it is basically a form of everyday mass transit in Venice, is much cheaper than a “regular” – i.e. for tourists only – gondola ride.) Unfortunately, some time between when our guidebook was published (2008) and now, the traghetto was done away with. So we walked all the way to the restaurant (crossing on the Ponte dell’Accademia)… only to find that this restaurant also didn’t open until 7! With some grumbling, we headed back, and eventually found a nice (read: open) place to eat.
Our last day in Venice (Friday), we went to the north side (Canareggio) to see the old Jewish Ghetto. This was done in lieu of the other heritage-exploring trip, east to Via Garibaldi where we would have seen the house of Giovanni Caboto – aka John Cabot, first post-Viking European to land in Atlantic Canada. From Canareggio we headed back to the Grand Canal, where we took a long-awaited gondola ride. Our gondolier skillfully guided us through the canals, ducking under low bridges, pointing out landmarks, and did other things (see picture below). After the gondola ride, we crossed the Ponte degli Scalzi by the train station, and went back to our hotel through the somewhat less touristy Santa Croce and San Polo, stopping for lunch along the way – our last meal in Venice, and also the first one at a restaurant where there seemed to be more Venetians than tourists. We had now visited all 6 of Venice’s sestieri, crossed the Grand Canal on all three bridges (ok, there are four – we didn’t cross on the newly built one that goes from the train station to the Piazzale Roma). So, heading back to the hotel via the Rialto Market, where we picked up some fresh strawberries (for about the same price as in Sydney), we had a final rest in the Campo Santa Maria Formosa. Then we picked up our bags and walked down to San Zaccaria (near Piazza San Marco), and took a final vaparetto trip along the length of the Grand Canal to the train station. After a long ride, we got back to Geneva late friday night.
Below are a few of the many pictures we took in Venice. In case Fredric Jameson is reading this: it is not Italy, but proof that it exists…
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Great pictures! Looks like you had beautiful weather.