What An Hour On A Vaparetto Will Get You - Or - Next Stop, MURANO!

The courtyard of our apartment which was near the Rialto Bridge

San Marco - or St Marks:) - the plaza with the Doge's Palace

Vaparatto stop....

San Marco Plaza

A word of warning - Venice is CRAZY busy -- and this is supposed to be one of the "slower" seasons.

Waiting for the ferry to Murano - one of the islands off of Venice which is known for its glassworks since about 500 years ago.

Looking towards the island of Murano and their reknown lighthouse.  

We had actually been looking across the water from Venice to this patch of land with a big brick fence around it.  On the way over to Murano, Flora and I were chatting (ok, I was doing the chatting) about where they bury their dead people in Venice.  Among all the stops we made, we came to one called "Cemeteria" and in a moment of curiousity, I made Flora get off...  I think it was one of our best stops! As it was so calm and peaceful and actually beautiful at this huge cematary island.

This would make me think a little about living in Venice.  All over the cemetary, there were headstones and graves just falling into the earth.  A little scary...

Leaving Cemetaria stop

 On Murano at one of the glassworks showrooms.

 Yummy - bruschetta Italian style!

 EEveryone needs their packages... they just get them in different ways!

There were glass sculptures all over the islands - this was definitely one of the most interesting!

 We loved Murano as it was definitely the most peaceful place that we had been since in Venice.  We stayed a little later and walked out a little farther and found that the crowds just dissipated and we ended up walking with the locals as they all went home for the evening.

This was our first gelato in Italy - I had a panna cota and Flora had melon.  I love mine!

 Back in Venice at the end of the day.

 St Marks plaza...

Looking towards St Marys

An AHHHH-rly Story!

http://storiesfromasnapshot.wordpress.com/

We've been getting back so late everynight, that I've lost track of time and haven't posted anything more from Venice, but I'm 10 steps ahead and finished my story - and then I realized that its only like Saturday! Ahh!  Enjoy an early story!

Take The Next Gondola...

Yesterday was lunch with Flora and her Atti and Hajni and David.  We had a great time and were able to polish off some of those pesky Thanksgiving leftovers.  I discovered the idea of a casserole and it turned out quite nicely -- I'll share the recipe at a future date which is closer to the holiday itself....

I cleaned up the later lunch dishes and headed over to Allee, the really cool mall in Budapest that happens to only be about a 2 minute walk from Jodi's, and there I got a coffee and a pair of great shoes for walking in - I figured I wanted something a little more sporty for VENICE!

Flora and I left at about 5:30 on Thursday morning and caught a flight through Vienna to Venice.  We landed about 10:30, took a bus to the vaparetto (water taxi) and then were at San Silverstru where we were meeting the woman who owns the apartment we're renting.  A short walk and a half and hour later and we were back on the streets of Venice "getting lost" in order to find the real Venice and some Italian lunch.

Losing Track Of Time....

Here's my story for the week...

http://wp.me/s1SXe5-unaware