Island hopping

We had our first taste of St Mark's Square as we headed to the private water taxi. At about 8.30am, it was relatively empty; within 10 minutes - relatively crowded. 

It was a day on the water - private water taxi to Murano, vaporettos to Burano, then Torcello, back to Burano, back to St Marco. Torcello is the site of the first settlement of Venice in the 5-6th century AD.  Now only 12 people live on the island. The wallet opened, but the church on Torcello did not. This was a major disappointment as in 2012 we went down into the crypts below the church. It was closed for restoration. Parts of the Bascilica were open, and I am afraid that 20m of solid mosaics is no longer as awesome as it once was!

The restorations we seem to strike regularly

The main wall of mosaics at Torcello

Last night I joined three others to find a restaurant, although I only had a scotch and coke. We found an amazing restaurant a block off the Grand Canal, open just 11 months, called Rivoire. It was a sister restaurant to a one in Florence, open for 156 years, owned by an eccentric interior designer magnate. All the restaurants have taxidermy objects, and the wallpaper in Venice was a copy of original paintings of the walls in Florence. I hope these photos do it justice. We sat under Conchetta, the giraffe.

Kerry and John settling down under Conchetta

Rivorie toilet

Tables at Rivoire

Me and Bruno the bear

As to our tour, there were crowds out on a Sunday, vaporettos were crowded. One one trip, a young girl of about four was watching Bluey on an iphone, I heard the unmistakable show music. It had been translated into French.

Young folk gave up their seats for us oldies, especially the 98 year old amongst us! I have not mentioned yet he was the Professor of Biochemistry and later Dean of Medicine at Newcastle when I was there. He is struggling with the tour, really.

On Murano, the traditional glassmaking island since about 1170, after a few fires in Venice, we saw a demonstration of glass blowing. In fact the master made a little horse! I bought a little covered bowl and a bit of jewellery. One item that I did not buy was 18,000 euros. Burano Island was all lace, clothes and more glass jewellery. Wait and see. 

Glass coffee set was about 2,000 euros

The Grand Canal about 8pm

We four are the laughing stock of the tour for repeatedly getting lost. On this occasion, we had a four minute walk to the hotel from the restaurant, after having taken at least 20 minutes to reach it as we were just looking for the right place to eat. Each of us remembered something about the route home, one an orange handbag, another a large group sitting outside a restaurant, another that we needed the second 'Garbon' passageway, not the first. We did not get lost in the dark!

More photos are still downloading, so the island images will come.

A street/canal on Burano

View from Torcello bell tower towards Burano. Zoom in to see coloured houses

Climbing the bell tower, at 12 minutes, made us miss a vaporetto, but we didn't get into trouble that time. As Yasmina (local tour manager) said, we had no timed visits to HAVE to get too. You miss out in Italy if you are late!

A busy day. We had a lovely lunch in a venue with billowing silk ceilings, a bit like a wedding venue. We were very please to have pavlova for dessert.