venice!

6 january 2011

ust to be clear, Venice is beautiful. During our stay, it was misty and cloudy, and it seemed as though Venice might disappear into the mist, like the mystical city of Avalon. It was even more beautiful when it started snowing – light flurries that melted just as they hit the water. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

In the morning, we bought a vaporetto pass, allowing us to ride all of venice’s water buses. we toured down the main canal, and stopped at Ponte Rialto, again. There was a celebration for la Befana (6 of January is the epiphany), and the bridge was filled with people. To the side was a small chorus and band, and a small group of old gondolier men dressed up as befana, who were apparently going to race later! We were lucky enough to go underneath the bridge just as they were singing, like something out of a movie.

We wandered around Piazza San Marco for a while, but couldn’t enter the church because of mass. So we hopped on the vaporetto again, and headed to Murano.

Murano is a must-see destination in Venice – its the island of glass making, and its absolutely breathtaking. We watched two men spin and pull globs of molten glass into little gondolas – thick liquid to hard solid glass in minutes. And it was like second nature to them to produce such art, such magic. We wandered through the shops admiring the glass work. At one shop, we watched a man make a glass beetle with a little Bunsen-y flame. He pulled delicate strands of glass and fired them to the perfect hardness, all the while creating perfect balance and symmetry. At another shop, a man was making tiny heart pendants, where I bought a tiny fish in a bowl (more on that later).

We wandered around some more after Murano, and nearly walked off the island we got so lost. Next time, more consultation of maps. But we made it back to the hostel alright and even warmed up in time to go out for gelato.

One thing that was very, very strange about Venice was its hours. So far all of my travels in Europe include very late dinners, in Valencia 9pm is the earliest that locals will eat dinner. But in Venice, shops started closing at 8: there was no nightlife, and no night activities. But perhaps that’s the curse of visiting a tourist town in the off season.