Day 10 Monterosso/ Venice
April 8th
We
enjoyed one last morning in Monterosso. Even with our sore calves we
all agreed we would miss this place and would have loved to have stayed a
few more days and relax on the beach.
Our
connection in Pisa was tight and since our train was late we missed it
by 1 minute. We had to go to the costumer service office and they had to
give us new tickets. We ended up on faster trains and still in first
class.
We
arrived in Venice at 1430 and we ran into the Wells family again just
outside the train station. What a small world! This time we remembered
to take a picture together.
We
walked over bridges and through many streets in Venice to get to our
apartment. The floors slant and you almost feel like you are on a cruise
ship because of the water.
After
settling in we headed out and started exploring Venice. I love the
streets and canals as much as I hoped I would. The smell is so-so at
times and it would be hard to live here with no yard and space but as a
vacation area it is fun.
We
got fresh pasta for dinner and went into a lot of little stores to shop
for gifts. Tomorrow we plan to go to Burano and Murano to check out the
glass blowing and lace making.
Day 11 Venice
April 8th
What
a fun day! We bought a day pass for the water verapatto and headed out
to the smaller islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.
Murano
was first. We watched a few glass blowers and then just walked all
around looking at various shops. It's a smaller version of Venice with
its streets and houses. We wandered back and saw several houses with
yards! Michelle found Hadley her glass horse.
Then
we went to Burano. This place was my favorite. Each house it brightly
painted and no two are the same. It was beautiful. I bought a scarf with
Burano Lace and we found our girls each a Venetian mask.
Our
last stop was Torcello. The tiniest of the 3 but it has the oldest
church in Venice with some of the oldest mosaic art in Italy. After
visiting the church we headed back to Venice.
Burano
Murano
Day 12 Venice
April 10th
Today
is our last full day in Italy. Our train for Rome doesn't leave until
midnight. We took the morning to shower, get packed and check out of the
apartment. Paola was nice and let us store our bags in a storage closet
under her apartment. It saved us money and from carrying around huge
bags all day.
We did a little more shopping for the girls. Found them necklaces made out of Murano glass.
Then
we went to San Marco church and square. We walked through the ginormous
church and admired all the mosaic work. The walls and ceilings were all
done in mosaic - a football fields worth. Most of it was gold and very
ornate. Again you have to appreciate the art work done and the time it
took the artists to complete. This is also the supposed burial place of
St Mark - hence its called San Marco.
After the church we walked around the Doge Palace and read Rick Steve's info about San Marco Square.
We
went across the Bridge Sigh and around the old jail. With plenty of
daylight left we walked through the streets of Venice and slowly made
our way to the Basilica of San Maria. We also stumbled across a free
music museum that had a lot of violins and other string instruments from
as early as 1600.
We
ate at We Love Italy a couple of times. I will miss this food a lot. We
sat on a dock by Rialto Bridge and people watched for a long time. Then
we shopped more. Garlan bought a chess set he's been eying since we
first got to Venice.
By about 9pm we got our bags and made our way back through the never ending narrow streets to the train station.
We are currently trying to stay awake for our midnight train with a sleeping couchette.
Day 13 Rome/home
April 11
We
all got some interesting sleep in our beds on the train. Jumped on the
Leonardo Express to the airport and made our way through about 10
checkpoints to our gate. Security is intense in this airport!
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