Venice - Murano Glass and a ride in a Gondola!

Glass blowing in Murano

Maureen admiring the glass displays

A Chandelier made in Murano

A Clown made of glass (the one on the left)

This glass sitar worth around E 4,000

Our gondola ride (Notice the pink accessories - Maureen's into pink)

I have been to Venice twice before, so I have seen most of it already.  There were a couple of things I hadn't yet done because I have always been too tight to spend the money.  One is to go on a Gondola ride, and the other is to go to the island of Murano.  Well, we ended up doing both!

I didn't mention in my previous blog that the Italian transport system went on strike last night at 9pm.  We just happened to miss it as we arrived by train in Venice at 8:40pm.  Apparently in Italy they just stop the train and tell you it's the end of the road when they have strikes.  So we were terribly lucky.  This morning we were about to buy an all day ticket for the Venice transport system (Vaporetti) when we were informed that they were not operating due to the strike.  Fortunately for us the hotel said we could ride in a private water taxi to the island of Murano and visit the glass factory all free of charge (presumably in the hope of us spending some tourist euros on their Murano glass products).  We took this opportunity as it was the only one we had and quite enjoyed the experience (I actually spent some tourist euros on a glass pendant).

Our gondola ride was quite pleasant as well.  It cost us E 80 (in total) for 40 minutes with a running commentary of all the attractions and the history of Venice.  Fortunately, there was no rendition of 'O Sole Mio'.

Now that I am in Italy I am feeling comfortable speaking the language.  I am finding it easy to speak Italian and in Venice I can hear people speaking the Veneto dialect which is very simlar to mine.

I LOVE VENICE !  I would love to see it when the flooding occurs at high tide in the winter.  Our gondolier told us that all the young people are leaving Venice because it is too expensive to live here.  Instead they are living in Mestre.