After a relaxing time in Santorini, we flew up to Venice. Surprisingly, it was the best and easiest way to get to the Dalmatian coast so we took a side trip. Venice was wonderful – few people, nice weather, and of course the city is beautiful. Our hotel around the corner from St. Mark’s Square so everything was a short walk away. The helpful desk clerk directed us to a small, ancient authentic Venice restaurant where we enjoyed prosciutto and melon, truffled linguine, and fresh sea bass along with a tasty Italian montepulciano.
St. Mark’s Basilica was virtually empty – we wandered through enjoying the beautiful architecture and mosaics for an hour or more on our own. Upstairs is a rich museum of art within the Basilica – including the original (3 out of 4) of the horses atop the Basilica which were taken from Constantinople (now Istanbul) during the Crusades in the 13th century as well as an up-close view of some amazing mosaics. The roof top held a wonderful view of the square, the clock tower (and it was ringing noon), the grand canal, and most of Venice. We toured through the Doge’s Palace with its beautiful full wall art, the bridge of Sighs where prisoners crossed for the last time, and the dungeons; again, very few people. The square is beautiful but at this time of year, the tides come up into the square so elevated walkways are used to get around and some bridges are unusable.
We took a water taxi over to Murano – nice to be out on the water speeding around the islands – cool and crisp but refreshing. We had a private tour of a glass factory and watched the first women apprentice to work in the field of glass blowing. She easily made a beautiful rearing horse and a water pitcher– two of the skills required in early apprenticeship. We wandered through the various showrooms of glass art – tableware, jewelry, lighting, art pieces – some very modern, some old school – all hand made and beautiful and expensive! The vaporetto took us over to Burano, an even smaller island with brightly colored buildings lining the canals – vibrant red, pink, green, blue, yellow, orange in quick succession.
Betsey got to take some early morning photos of St. Mark’s square as well as the Rialto Bridge and market on way to the Gallerie de l’Accademia. The paintings inside are enormous. We had a cozy dinner the last night right canal-side. Wonderful food, wine, and service. The restaurant also had a room (not yet open for the winter) which housed hundreds of ancient swords, knives, and axes. Glad we were outside!
In the morning set off in the morning for a short train ride to take us to Trieste and points east – back to Croatia for the Dalmation coast.
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