Venice, Italy: Oct. 12-15

Venice: Friday Oct. 14, 2005

We awoke this morning to the same sounds of the market waking up. This time however we were more familiar with them and were even able to sleep through most of the head chopping. Brennan wasn’t feeling well this morning for whatever reason so we decided to postpone our planned trip to the island of Murano (glass blowing) for a day.

We left Brennan behind and headed off to the post office to ship out the packages. Three boxes and 30 Euro later they were out of our hair along with various other items we had managed to collect. We are sensitive to what we purchase as everything we negotiate down off the price we pay back in shipping costs.

Next up was a visit to our landlord to reschedule our Murano trip (no problem), and then back to St. Mark’s Square where we intended to catch some of the other museums in the area. By this time Sierra was getting tired of museums so around about noon we headed back to the apartment to drop her off with Brennan.

After lunch, Debbie and Brian headed off on their own to explore some more. We also wanted to hit the train station and confirm our travel requirements for Sunday morning when we leave Italy for Austria. Turns out it was worthwhile because the schedules had changed again and we were going to need reservations to get to Salzburg. We will pick those up tomorrow.

We took the long way around back to the Rialto Bridge doing some shopping (food for dinner) along the way. It was around this time that it got very crowded in Venice. If this is what it was like in the off season we couldn’t imagine how it would be in the heart of summer.

Walking in Venice is a war. No quarter is given and none is taken. The narrow alleys are just not leisurely stroll friendly, so if you want to go somewhere/anywhere you have to spot the holes and drive through. Absent of holes you just have to drive through anyway. Little old ladies who are moving slowly are just obstacles in this city. After doing the polite thing such as politely letting them go through a doorway in front of you and having them stop in the said doorway and carry out a conversation with their neighbor for the next 3 minutes now blocking all traffic, you learn. The kids learned much more quickly than Debbie or I did and were very adept at weaseling their way through the crowds. Again we wonder how they will readjust back to Canada.

We eventually survived the streets and made it back to the apartment. It will be a quiet evening with another dinner in. Tomorrow we get to head out to Murano which is famous for its blown glass. This trip is shaping up to be a war of wills. Debbie wants some Murano glass, and Brian is convinced that if we get any glass it needs to be a big glass Marlin statue. Stay tuned!

Venice : Saturday October 15, 2005

It’s amazing how soon you begin to get accustomed to the sounds around you. After 3 nights, Debbie almost slept through the fish market opening. Breakfast this morning was going to be bacon and eggs. We thought we would splurge on our last breakfast and had purchased the bacon the day before. What a let down. While eggs are pretty much eggs, we learned that Italy should stick to its pasta and leave bacon to the pros back in Canada. It was edible but only just.

We had a bit of time before catching our boat over to Murano for the morning. So Brian and Sierra headed off to explore the markets and pick up food for dinner. This shopping in the morning for dinner was becoming somewhat habit forming. Sierra commented that relative to Athens, these markets were pretty civilized. They sold lots of fresh fish but at least they weren’t hanging bunnies or selling pig feet!

Round about quarter to 10 we were at the boat stop waiting for our ride to Murano. Something didn’t quite jive with the directions we had been given the day before. We just couldn’t see how a double decker boat was going to dock at the public water bus (vaporetto) site. We became even more convinced when 15 minutes later the boat still hadn’t shown up. Undaunted we simply purchased a 24 hour travel pass (about 10 Euro per adult) that we were going to need anyway in order to get back from Murano and to do our tours this afternoon. Two boats later we were pulling up to the island of Murano just to the north of Venice.

Murano is famous for its glassworks and while we had gagged at most of the glass products we had seen, Debbie was convinced that it couldn’t all be bad. Besides we were interested in seeing a couple of glass blowing demos.

Right off the ferry we managed to locate a couple of demonstrations. The masters were pretty amazing as they cranked out small horse sculptures and vases in the span of 3-4 minutes. Debbie was thinking these guys are good. Brian was thinking 4 minutes per horse makes it hard to justify any kind of high price.

Turns out not too many people think like Brian because they were charging 15-20 Euro per horse. If you crunch it out these glass blower guys were grossing around 400 Euro per hour. You can see that Brian has still not quite managed to turn off work.

After hitting a couple of demos and stores we had seen a couple of vases that would have looked good in the house but they just didn’t say “buy us” in a big loud voice. Then we found THE SHOP. At first it was deceptive because it really didn’t show that well. Then we were taken to the secret “back room”. The artwork was much more contemporary and there in the corner was a heavy tear dropped piece that blended together different shades of red and rust into a translucent colour. Debbie and the kids fell in love. Brian didn’t gag. Debbie thought this is it! Brian asked “how much”. We left the store with the “we’ll think about it” response and the debate ensued.

Debbie and the kids based their arguments on:

• It’s a beautiful unique piece and we all love it.
• We are below budget!

Brian’s argument was:

• How can anybody justify this price, and
• It’s just burnt sand!

Brian played the hard ass and dug his heels in. Debbie and the kids continued to shop but their hearts just weren’t in it. They had found the piece they wanted and nothing else was measuring up. Anything else they found would just have been settling. After a repeat of the earlier debate everybody saw the wisdom of Brian’s ways. (In reality we just gave up---note from Debbie. Also I have the store’s website card. HA!) We boarded the ferry and escaped the glass island sans purchase. Yeah!

We returned to the apartment for our last lunch of pizza and calzones. Brennan and Sierra spent the afternoon working on school projects while Brian and Debbie hit the alleyways again. We had wanted to do a couple more boat trips around the canals and spent the afternoon on our own hopping around and taking pictures from the boats.

Another home made dinner and then it was packing time. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Italy and head to Salzburg. We already have seats reserved and only half the trip will be on the Italian rail road system, so maybe we will make it on time. It’s hard to believe we have been here over 3 weeks now. It’s been terrific. The people have been very friendly, the food great and the sites surpassed everything we could have imagined. That said, I think we are all getting a little tired of pasta (who would have thought?), and we are looking forward to getting back up into the mountains, where the air is a little cooler and a little less humid. Ciao Italia! ( NEXT PAGE )