Giorno n5 - The weather finally cleared up in Venice, of all places - a city renowned for its extreme heat or intense flooding. Our hotel was right on the water and the interior looked like it had stayed the same for the past hundred years. Very charming. We ate lunch on the canal before hopping a water taxi to the island of Murano where watched a glass blowing demo given by the worlds tiniest "master blower" whose technique was narrated by the worlds tallest glass expert. The guy was huge. The whole thing had a very circus feel to it. We left with our authentic Murano glass souvenirs (also found at the Harford County Mall - but that's not the point) for the small fishing island of Burano about a 30 minute water taxi ride away. (I visited Burano during my previous Venice trip in February, but needed to go back with my better camera.) On Burano we enjoyed a glass of canal-side wine and picked out which boats went with which houses. Buranonians tend to match their boats with their shutters.
We returned to the main island, shopped and visited a couple tourist things before setting out to find Il Refolo - a Cianciotta Venetian favorite. The route to get there involved another water taxi ride and an adventure through Venice's complicated alleyways and bridge system. Imploring the help of some kind locals, we arrived at our destination and enjoyed a fabulous meal with "train pizza" to spare. (Train pizza is what we started to call the leftovers we ate on the train rides between cities.)
Giorno n6 - Mom and I woke up early Wednesday to see San Marco and the Bridge of Sighs before our train around noon. San Marco did not open until right before we needed to catch our water taxi so we killed about an hour walking around - getting lost and finding our way and getting lost again. We stopped for caffe along one of the smaller canals and experienced one of those "this is paradise" moments - right before speaking too much English, pissing off the barista, and being reminded of our place. Oh, Italy.
We made it through San Marco just in time to meet Aunt Jill and Linds at the water taxi stop. Our final water ride in Venice was straight down the Grand Canal to the train station where we were ecstatic to show off our suitcase-lug-up-stairs skills yet again. Luckily, the best fuel after any workout involving heavy luggage - train pizza.
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