Venice is a funny little city because even though it was absolutely breathtaking and we loved every second being there, it wasn’t my favourite of the cities that we visited. Rome definitely has my heart. The funny thing is that this is the city I visit in my dreams ALL the time. It’s the one I look at and feel the most profound nostalgia for. It truly is a magical place.
With our time running out we started getting up flipping early again to make sure that we saw everything that we could see. And on today’s agenda was seeing the islands of Murano and Burano. The islands that are renowned for glass blowing and just off the coast of the main centre of Venice.
To get to said islands you needed to get a Waterbus pass. Much cheaper to by a full day pass but it was still crazy expensive! Yoh we both sort of winced when we paid for this tickets but committed to ensuring that we used the crap out of them to make it worth it.
Just when we thought we’d figured out the whole travel system we had to work this one out. And it was confusing as hell because the names are different. Anyway, getting to Murano was pretty easy – the name was the name and the specific stop that you had to get on was close to where we were YAY.
It was really cloudy and windy on our way there and I was worried that it was going to rain. Thankfully it held out and we got on Murano to check out the vibe. And um, I don’t know hey. I’m not sure it’s worth the money we paid for the pass. As interesting as it was to see glass being blown, I would have enjoyed more time walking around the real Venice much more.
We found a factory that did viewings of the glass blowing and so we paid the 2 or 5 Euro each and watched the show. It really was interesting. We even saw Jack Nicholson 😉
And guess what? We were starving. What’s new?! So while walking around and around trying to find affordable but nice mementos and presents we found a little restaurant where we stopped for a couple of glasses of chilled white wine. It was easily the best wine we’d had the entire trip. It was delicious. They didn’t have much in terms of food but we had a few little snacks with the wine to tide us over.
By this time the island (which is not very big) was getting ridiculously full. So we went to take the waterbus to Burano and found the line to be over an hour wait and we were like hell no! We’re not spending our last full day here waiting in lines, so we headed back to Venice. We past the cemetery island where all the dead are buried. It’s interesting (and I only found this out the following day on our tour) but they weren’t allowed to bury them in their houses as they were accustomed to doing(?!) and so they had put them on the separate island or they’d contaminate the drinking water.
But obviously because have no idea what we are doing, we got off in the wrong spot. We pulled up to this stop and the name sort of looked familiar but we were convinced that the main square was at the next stop. We were totally wrong. So instead of spending lunch in the square looking at the famous sights, we spent our lunch eating burnt pizza with watered down wine.
At least we had an incredible view!
With tummies that were finally full but nearly satisfied, we found the right waterbus to take us to the main part of Venice. I was stuck under some guys armpit the entire way. It was super. The first sight that we saw was the Bridge of Sighs. We only got to see it from the outside, but that was enough for me. There were SO many people.
Then we saw the main square (St Marks? – I can’t remember now) and we just kind of walked through it without really taking it all in somehow. I don’t really think we acknowledged where we actually were. But also we knew our tour of the following morning would get us access there so we were too worried. While walking back through Venice to our AirBnB we walked past the bridge again 🙂
The idea of going back to the room was to refresh. And then this happened… Which was in fact, quite refreshing.
Then when I woke up I realised that I had a notable food baby. All of the pizza, pasta, gelato and the after effects of carrying 3 babies in that belly means I was not even pushing that out. I promise.
But that didn’t stop us for heading out for another night on the town. We researched a nice little place for tapas and found this spot that has a little boat that you can sit on outside the restaurant. It was such a great vibe with really good food options and fantastic wine. We wanted to go all out with the food but they didn’t have any indoor tables because of a party they were hosting, so we settled with the wine and tapas on the boat.
Although I wouldn’t call it settling because hot damn this place is just beautiful:
After that we took another really long stroll around the city. Taking in the setting sun.
It was the perfect evening. Walking hand in hand along the canals of Venice – something I had always dreamed of doing was our current reality. It was absolutely mind boggling! Worth every single penny that we scrimped and saved to get there.
We took another little boat ride to a part of the city that we thought we hadn’t walked around a million times to find a lovely little restaurant for dinner. Which we found and it was incredible. Or my food was anyway. We think Seth ordered something with squid ink because his food was basically black and not something he enjoyed. But the red wine was great and we struck up a conversation with a UK couple that were just down for the weekend (jealous much).
The it was time to rest our bodies for our very last day exploring one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.
FOR MORE ON OUR ITALIAN TRIP DON’T MISS:
- What We Packed In Our Backpacks for 9 Days in Italy
- Leaving Cape Town
- Day 1 – Rome
- Day 1 – A Day In Rome – Photodiary
- Day 2- A Morning in Naples Climbing Mount Vesuvius
- Day 2 – An Afternoon In Pompeii
- Day 2 – A Night In Rome In Search Of the Best Gelato and Caffe
- Day 3 – The Roman Suburb Of Trastevere
- Day 4 – Rome To Florence
- Day 5 – A Morning In Pisa
- Day 5 – An Afternoon Exploring The Cinque Terre
- Day 6 – When In Florence
- Day 7 – From Florence to Venice
2 comments
Your posts have really been fantastic and just make me want to travel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah thanks! I’m so glad that you are reading them and enjoying them!