I woke up early to take a shower, but our bathtub only had a door for half of it, so taking a shower was interesting. But, none the less it was accomplished, and we even had a bidet in the bathroom. We had complimentary breakfast at the hotel, so that was nice. They served fresh coffee and apricot croissants and nutella! Yum. We then departed for the day. We were going to visit the surrounding islands of Venice, aka be on a boat for a very long time. Our first destination was Murano, an island famous for glass blowing. All of the beautiful Venetian chandeliers and glass pieces are made on this island. We even went to a shop where we got to see real live glass blowing in action. The master that was there was a master in making animal glass pieces. We saw a duck and a fish that was created; it was really cool and mesmerizing. I even got a few glass pieces as well. Next stop, was Torcello, often referred to as the Mother of Venice. It was a very ancient town, with old stone bridges, grassy meadows, and a lagoon that runs right through the island. They even have a ‘Devils Bridge’ in Torcello, which was said to be built in one mysterious night, it has no barrier, it is just a bridge. We walked all the way down to the Cattedral di Torcella, which was founded in AD 639. It was a very old church, but it was also very pretty. There were even vineyards nearby the church, they had very interesting sculptures among the vines, and some sculptures had no heads. Next stop was Burano, we passed this island on the way to Torcello and decided to go since all of the buildings were brightly colored. Burano is world famous as a center for lace-making, but that is not the reason that I wanted to go there. It is a very charming island with houses of cobalt blue, sunset yellow, peach, grass green and barn read. We walked around, ate lunch by the canal and even had a gelato after that. It was a very cute island and I really enjoyed all the colors. Our next stop was Isola di San Michel, which was the former prison island, but is now Venice’s cemetery. It started in the late 1800s when Napoleon demanded that bodies be buried across the water, rather than on the Venetian island. The cemetery was laid out in a very precise manner, some areas were in alphabetical order by last name, the crosses were grouped together as well as the grave stones, there was a religious section and a military section, there were even walls of names with flowers, and it had individual rooms for families too. It had trees, plants and flowers all around and there was even a church, but it was closed by the time we reached that island. The weather could not have been better today, but as we were wandering through the cemetery, the sky starting booming. It was thundering quite loud and it was somewhat scary as we were on an island that was solely for burying the dead. We still were walking around, but it started to rain lightly, so we decided we should head back to the boat station. Thank goodness we started to head back, because in a matter of minutes we were experiencing a torrential downpour. We were under cover on the boat dock and the rain was going sideways. The boat dock was rocking back and forth, it was crazy. We hopped on the 3rd boat and headed back to the main land. We even saw some crazy Italians that got into a yelling match and an older lady fell as she was trying to get onto the boat as people were pushing each other to get off, it was crazy mad. We walked around northern Venice, we saw a church and the area were Venetian residents reside, so it was cool. It was still sprinkling and the air was getting cooler. Alex and I were some what wet from the crazy wet boat ride to the main island. We decided to take the ‘tourist boat’ back through the Grand Canal, which is basically the main street (well river) of Venice. We passed by the Rialto Bridge, the Academic Bridge, the Ca’ d’Oro (the House of Gold), the city’s market, Ca’Pesaro (beautiful baroque architecture), the Punta della Dogana de Mar (it is an old customs landing stage from goods from the 16th century onward), museums along the canal and lots of gothic architecture as well. The boat ride was a lot of fun. After we got off at San Marco, we went to the hotel to change for our evening attire, as we were slightly cold and still wet. I was sitting on the bed, and the room started rocking and I still felt like I was on a boat, it was a very weird feeling. But, it was only when I was sitting down or standing still that I felt this way, so I wanted to get walking again. We then road the boat over to the Castello area, we landed at a beautiful garden and watced the sunset and looked at the sky post-storm was phenomenal. We walked along the canal and finally found a street filled with cheap places to eat. We had a nice dinner and I had a yummy pasta dish. We even had a ‘Bacardi beer’ although it was just a sweet mixed drink, but oh well. We then walked along the canal to go back to the square. There are lots of people selling fake bags along the street and as we crossed over a bridge, they all quickly picked up their fake bags and ran off, probably before the police came. It was funny to watch. When we arrived at the square, it was a Friday night so there was lots of live music at all the cafes in the square. We watched three different bands perform and we even watched the bell ring by the statutes at the top. It was fun. It was a long day and we were both very tired and still feeling a little funny from the boat, so we wanted to go back to the hotel. We wanted to wake up early to see the church and some museums, so getting rest was nice. And during the day I got approached multiple times by random tourists asking directions to places or what not, I guess I look like a Venetian and not an American or something.
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