THURSDAY IN VENICE

We started off the day by going to the produce markets by the Rialto Bridge. I love going to markets everything is so fresh, and we got a chance to see some local Venetians buying their groceries. I bought some fruits and tomatoes. Along with produce there was also several fish markets showcasing all different kinds of fish. I saw the ink fish that I had eaten the night before for dinner.

The produce market opens around 6 in the morning and the other stands selling anything from Venetian glass and t-shirts open later in the morning. We got to the market around nine, so by the time we were done buying our fruits other vendors were beginning to open. I decided that this would be souvenir day. I bought my first Venetian glass souvenir, a wine bottle stopper. Then I bought some specialty pasta and a belt for Tim. We returned to the hotel after the market to put our goods down and made our lunches for the day with our fresh ingredients.

We decided the rest of the day would be dedicated to island hopping since there are about six different smaller islands around Venice. We took the Vaparetti to Murano, which is an island famous for its glass artwork. Everywhere you look in Venice you can see this type of Murano glass. There is store after store filled with jewelry, glasses, platters, chandeliers, and tons of other glass objects. Our tour book told us that to prevent fires in the glass making factories on Venice they moved all the factories to Murano. We got a tour of a factory, and we watched one of the artists make a horse sculpture and a vase. After our watching the artist, of course they take you to the show room where you can purchase all the glass you want. This glass was super expensive there were glasses that were 60 euros each! Obviously we did not buy anything from this store. We continued our wandering around the island stopping in several glass shops. This is where I went a little crazy. By the time we were ready to eat lunch I had bought seven necklaces!

We ate lunch in a little park and then walked to St. Maria’s Church. This church had the most beautiful mosaic marble floor I had ever seen. The floors were covered in every color of marble.

We got on the Vaparatti and headed to Ledo after the church. Ledo is a skinny little island, about a mile and half long and a half mile wide. Even though this Island was so tiny, there were cars and roads. It was shocking to see cars because Venice does not have any roads. Ledo is the little beach town of Venice. Unfortunately as soon as we got off the Vaparetti the sun disappeared and was replaced by a hazy misty yuckiness. We walked the half-mile down to the beach side. There was not too much of a view, but we passed the time picking up seashells for Jeanie. I got quite good at deconking the baby conk shells that had washed up on shore. The little conks just came out with tiny tug or two. Nobody else could get the conks out, so I felt quite privileged with my skill. Jeanie and I collected a good grocery-size bag full of shells before we headed back to the other side of the Island to get the Vap back to Venice.

Once we were back in Venice, I continued buying more glass stuff. I bought four more glass wine bottle stoppers, so if you are reading this you might be the luck recipient of one of these Venetian treasures. We did not really get hungry until around nine that night, but unfortunately by the time we got our act together most of the restaurants were closing. Andrea, Jeanie, and I ordered a pizza for 13 euros, which was awesome price for a dinner for three in Venice. While Andrea was waiting for the pizza with Karen, Jeanie and I decided we had to have gelato. We went in search of an open gelataria and found one and brought back gelato for everyone. I had this delicious pistachio cherry flavor. We bought some really shitty, cheap wine and brought the pizza back to our hotel to have our little feast. The pizza was amazing and spicy! It was strange tasting something spicy since nothing in Spain has any spice to it.