Day two in Venice

Today was our second day in Venice. (yay!). We actually started our day with a shore excursion to two islands outside of Venice called Murano and Burano. Murano is very famous for their glass and Burano is famous for their lace making. We went to a glass making studio and watched the master create a beautiful drinking glass. The oven was over 1,000°c. We watched him blow the glass and shape it as well. All Murano glass is blown and handmade. The glass masters are all men, I’m not sure why.  Madison thinks that it might be because they want to stick to the old traditions. Max reminds me that very few people wanted to have that job. In the olden days glassblowers were not allowed to leave Venice-ever and were also supposed to commit their male children to becoming glassblowers as well.   After the presentation we were all invited to the showroom to look at the unique pieces and to possibly pick up a souvenir for as the glass master said, “The lady who is watering your plants and taking care of your pussycat (poo-see-cut).” Well this showroom had beautiful, unique pieces. Most of them cost more than my car, a few cost more than my house. I fluctuated from being in absolute awe to being in a complete state of terror. I kept thinking of my lack of grace. I was so worried that I might knock something over. There goes sending the kids to college, or well, eating dinner ever again. I'd probably have to commit my own male child to working in the glass factory for the rest of his life to pay my debts. Speaking of my male child, Max was wearing his camera case around his neck and I watched it swing back and forth like a pendulum. I just noticed I am still holding my breath while typing this. Sigh of relief…we didn’t break anything and we found some affordable souvenirs, too.

Next we traveled to Burano. It’s such a quaint island with very colorfully painted houses. I was relieved to go there knowing I wouldn’t be tempted to buy something lacy. Ha! Wrong! I fell in love with a tablecloth and hey, we need something for fancy occasions at the Allen house. Yes, even the Allens can get fancy sometimes. And it is important to note that we had some gelato in Burano and some delicious cookies called Buranei.

Traveling to and from the islands, the tour guides gave us a lot of information about the beautiful city of Venice. I really appreciate the history we get from our tour guides as I have stumbled into this trip a little more ignorant than I originally intended. After the tour of the islands we returned to the ship to put away our goodies and head back into Venice.

Ah, I love Venice so much. We just wandered around, stopped at little shops, fruit stands, and did a lot of walking. It was so peaceful in the area we hung out in today. We took a gondola ride as well. We just couldn’t have come all the way to Venice and then thumb our noses at the gondoliers and their outrageous prices.  Our gondolier was named Tomaso (Tommy) and he took us on some side canals and a little stint on the grand canal as well.

We ended our Venice visit with dinner at a modest restaurant in a little alley. It was, of course, delicious. When we got back to the ship Madison and Max spent some time in the kids’ club. Madison entered and won the hoola hooping contest. She got a gold medal-yay Maddee. Meanwhile, Mike and I enjoyed a beverage and headed to the bow of the ship to see the sights as we exited Venice.

We finished up the evening with a swim and some time in the hot tub. We have our last day in Italy tomorrow (sad). We are going to Ravenna and spending the day at the beach. Time to dip our toes in the Adriatic Sea!