Venice - Murano and Burano

Our appartment definately was a lucky strike! It was situated in S.Croce, comfortably away from the masses of people in San Marco, and we lived the easy life of the few Venetians who still can afford to live in Venice. Population is dropping constantly, most locals live e.g. in Mestre and commute into the city every day to work here.

The very best thing about our wonderfully quiet appartment was the little balcony where we enjoyed a lovely view over the rooftops of the city, and where we had breakfast each morning before diving into the huzzle and buzzle just a few steps away. I am convinced you cannot stay anywhere better in Venice, even the famous hotels with their balconies onto the Canale Grande are right in the middle of the - let´s say it frankly - usually very loud Italian life. The vaporetto stop was like two minutes away, and it took us just a short while to ride to San Marco.

One day was reserved for "the islands". Since it was extremely tricky to figure out the vaporetto schedule (and even to FIND the proper line taking you to the islands) we only managed to go to Murano and Burano on this one day. We were so absolutely done in the evening when we hoped to catch a boat to Torcello the captain obviously had decided that he did not want to go there, so all we heard was "oggi non Torcello", so we decided what the heck, called it a day and went back to San Marco.

Murano actually was a bit of a disappointment. It is mostly about shops selling glass, and the glassware you find in the windows are not even pieces of art but made for mass tourism and rather trashy. No doubt you can find masterpieces inside the factories in case you want to order something really special for your villa, but strolling around Murano was not the big thing. I had been here years ago on the Saturday of the Carnevale and remembered a quiet, picturesque island (of course, everyone was in San Marco to party and the shops were closed) and I had been afraid that Murano might be completely different with the shops open. But Hasi really had wanted to go there, so we did. We did not like it, so we decamped very soon  - only to find ourselves in the confusion of the local vaporetto system again. Since we were not able to find the proper direct line to Burano we went back to San Marco and took a boat from there.

As you can see, Burano is a totally different ride. Whilst Murano is just a few minutes from Venice it takes you almost 45 minutes to get out to Burano. But it was so worth it! Burano is absolutely lovely...

 

It is famous for its colorful houses and for its lace and embroidery. And even though you find many shops there the atmosphere is peaceful and easy-going. We instantly fell in love with the place.

Leaving was hard, but we had planned to round the day off with Torcello - where we did not make it, due to the unsolved vaporetto secret.

So back home in S. Croce we dragged ourselves to our favorite pizzeria "Rosa" - one of the places where the locals go, and where you can sit and watch life passing by for hours....

Oh happy day...

    

Beautiful Venice - Hasis "round" anniversary

Benvenuti nella bella Venezia! It was Hasi´s "round anniversary", and I had been planning on this since January. What do you give someone who has everything he wants? Exactly, a dream journey - and a dream Venice had always been for Hasi. His parents had been molto spesso, and I had been years ago at the carnevale with Katja - and somehow he always had been left behind. So I thought Venice might be qualcose di speciale! It should have been a great surprise, I told him one week before we left, to give him something to look forward to - and I am happy to say he absolutely loved it. And when we were there he plunged into it, being enthusiastic about absolutely everything I had organized, loving every minute of our journey. It could not have worked any better!

Venice is a dream come true. At home you think that you probably might not catch all the magic and discover all the beautiful views - but then you are there and you discover the magic is everywhere and you shuffle from one beautiful view onto the next.

I strongely advice you to book a tour when you want to see the Palazzo Ducale and the Basilica San Marco. At Piazza San Marco, definately the must-see of Venice, there are zillions of people, and of course also inside the main buildings. I don´t know what I would have done if I had not booked a tour from home.....

The lion of Venice, which we visited right at the beginning of our tour. I had booked at "Get your Guide", and what we got was a great local guide with lots of knowledge of all the roundabouts. It was expensive - something you have to get used at in Venice - but it was definately worth it.

Hasi inside the Palazzo Ducale. The tour was extremely interesting, especially for us history lovers.

Ponte dei Sospiri - die "Seufzerbrücke" or "Bridge of Sighs"....

The tour lasts for about 5 hours and afterwards we were really, really hungry. What a lucky coincidence that I had booked a table at Grand Hotel Monaco! ("Monaco" meaning not the name of the dwarf state, but meaning one of the old families here in Venice.)

I was also happy that I had booked from home (concierge@hotelmonaco.it), billiards of tourists are all over the place, and the Monaco is frontline to the Canale Grande, so guess where everybody wants to go. But do consider a very high bill! I won´t mention this from now on anymore - you have been warned! lol)

The little birthday something my Hasi got.

And since our feet were hurting and the place was nice, shady and comfy we stayed there for long hours and enjoyed the view...

Venice is a beautiful scenery for taking photos, so I must confess that it is absolutely impossible to post even a tiny choice of the beautiful photos that we took (most of them my Hasi, some of them simply by my iPhone6), we made thousands of photos, cut the best off´s down to like 800... see, it is hopeless. We did and saw so many great things, and I will try to put some of them for you on display in the next few blogs. For this special day just let me assure you we did plenty of great other things, discovered more or the Piazza San Marco, ventured on a great Vaporetto ride, explored more of the surroundings around our quarter in St.Stae... but for the moment just let me wish you a great rest of the day and say farewell with a photo of our rooftop appartment at sundown.