We awoke to another cloudy and cool day. After a great breakfast up in the
rooftop restaurant we headed out for a vaporetto ride to Burano. We decided to avoid going to the other
island of Murano, famed for its glassblowers, because each time we’ve been
there we’ve wound up buying something and we really don’t need any more glass
sculptures.
So after getting a map from the front desk with a nice blue
line showing the way to the vaporetto step at Fondamento Nuove, we set out and
I promptly got us lost. I will use
as excuses that there are no straight streets in Venice and streets do change
names along the way. (Maybe I was
a little to blame too.) After asking
for directions from a few Venetians, we finally made it to the right place,
bought our 24 hour vaporetto passes (one of the best buys for a visitor here)
and caught a boat to Burano. It
was packed! There’s only one line
that goes to that island and we had half the Chinese visitors to Venice on
board with us, packed in like sardines.
A nice local lady was sitting in the seat next to us and
after the boat had stopped in Murano first she told us something , in Italian
of course, which we thought meant that we wanted the second stop in
Burano. So we sat and watched the
throng of people get off and sailed away.
The boat made another stop at some other place called Torcello and then
began its trip back to Venice. We
stopped again in Burano where hordes of people were waiting to board,. The skies looked like they were ready
to open. We made the decision that
the best course of action was to be round-trippers. We could see the famed multi-colored houses along the little
canal and the very leaning church tower.
The upshot is we sort of saw Burano.
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| Maybe a little hard to see, but the tower has a distinct angle |
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| What an assortment of colors on the houses! Imagine the way it would look on a sunny day. |
Back in Venice proper we switched to a different vaporetto
line, our goal being to get to a restaurant we’ve enjoyed in years past for
lunch. It turned out our boat
didn’t go where we wanted so we got off near San Marco and walked. Along the way we passed the Bridge of
Sighs near the Doge’s Palace and I gave a little sigh because my feet are
feeling the miles we’ve walked in the last few days.
We found our restaurant, a little place called the Osteria
del Barababao. The food and the
wine were as good as we remembered.
The last time we went to
this restaurant our waiter told Al that he had a twin living in Venice.
Apparently he knew a professor who was Al’s double.
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| A little house wine at the Osteria del Barababao (the Devil's Inn) |
After a nice lunch we wandered our way back to our hotel in
a pretty good rain shower. Venice
in the rain is not for the faint-hearted because of the umbrellas. The little streets are so narrow that
you have to keep a sharp eye out for menacing umbrella tips which might come
your way. On the plus side though
where else can you walk along and see shops which sell nothing but gloves or
yarn? It’s absolutely fascinating
and charming and each time we have visited here we’ve seen something new.
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| A yarn shop. Interestingly, one store window was yarn and the other was ladies' underwear |
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| A glove shop. I wish I needed some. |
Tonight we’re trying the hotel’s restaurant. They have a lovely enclosed terrace
with patio heaters to take off the chill right on the Grand Canal looking
across at Santa Maria Salute.
Tomorrow it’s off to the Odyssey. Hopefully the weather gods will be kinder in the upcoming
days.
1 comment:
Ann...you disappoint me. Since when do you 'need' gloves to buy them. I can see from the picture that they were Sermonetta gloves...oh my you missed an amazing opportunity. But then you can think of this as a reason to go back to Venice.
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