7.11.09 Venice

Another perfecto day in Venice! Seriously, I have yet to find anything wrong with this place. This morning we all met up as a group to head over to Murano Island to tour their glass blowing factories. If you didn’t already know, Venice is world famous for its incredible Venetian glass products. Lamps, mirrors, vases, sculptures, chandeliers…you name it. Seeing as how our hotel is right on a canal, the glass factory rep sent two snazzy water taxis over to get our group.

The other sister. She loves getting out into some fresh air now and again.

This one...was a better try? Well, we're just trying
to be a cool Italian couple cruising the Mediterranean.

They were so cool! We cruised in and around the inner canals of the city before we got out on the open water to head over to Murano. The entire island of Murano if covered with glass blowing factories, but we were attending a demonstration and touring the showroom of one of the biggest and oldest ones there. The man that met us spoke great English and was hilarious. He took us back into the room with the ovens of glass that’s just cookin’ around 1200 degrees and a little old man who he referred to as maestro. He was a “master” at glass blowing, having done it his whole life. They told us it takes anywhere from 25-30 years to “master” the art of glass blowing. We asked if there was a school that you could attend to learn how to do it and he said that its and art only handed down through families, that the skill is never taught to anyone who isn’t family; explaining why Venice has remained world renowned and exclusive for the glass. This man was INCREDIBLE at working and blowing the glass. In about 10 minutes he made a pitcher and also a miniature horse standing on its hind legs balancing on its tail. It was unreal at how proficient, precise and fast he could work. It gave me so much more appreciation for what goes into such common pieces that I see all over. We then went and explored over nine rooms in their showroom of amazing glass blown works of art. Not only were they crazy cool, but extremely expensive. But apparently people are paying by the boatload to have an authentic Venetian piece in their home. I would buy a chandelier in a heartbeat from here. The coolest one I have seen was in the Rubelli showroom, which they got from the local craftsmen here in Venice. So, the glass factory was such a cool experience. From then on out we have had the rest of the day to ourselves, so we opted for the beach. Everyone has been telling us to go to the island of Lido for the best beaches. So before we hopped on a water taxi from Murano, I snagged some gelato.

Gelato numero 8

Its an addiction, I will just accept it now. We got on the appropriate water taxi, which I guess you’re supposed to buy tickets for, but we couldn’t find anywhere to buy them so we just hurried on then pretended like we were asleep. Problem solved. The man came around to punch the tickets but waltzed by us when he saw us asleep. They aren’t too strict apparently on their transportation system. After about a 15-minute ride we arrived in Lido, which is a long, skinny island with sandy beaches running all the way down one side of the island. We landed on the not beachy side, so attempted to find our way to the side with the beach. We didn’t think this would be that big of a problem…eventually we ended up asking and he pointed us in the other direction. Next thing you know we are arriving on miles and miles of beautiful Mediterranean Sea shore.

And beautiful it was! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and with temperatures up in the mid 80’s it was bliss at the beach. We quickly learned how different the beaches in Europe are from America; and good thing I became desensitized to nudity in the Philippines. People here are just much more comfortable…being comfortable. That's all I'll say about that. However, aside from the skimpiness of other beach goers, we had a perfect day there.

The Fab 5 at the beach on Lido Island

The water felt amazing as wasn’t very salty being a sea not an ocean, and the heat here feels so nice! There was always a breeze in the air no matter where you are. We went to the cabana to get some food and were stoked to find cheeseburgers and grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. We quickly took advantage of that opportunity and had a great lunch there at the gorgeous Aurora Beach Club.

Waiting for our grub...

We then continued with a few more hours of swimming and napping. Once all of our gooses were cooked we headed on out, running into a few more peeps from our group leaving at the same time; which was perfect because they knew the correct way to get back to our hotel.

Gelato numero 9

Of course we had to stop for some gelato after being in the sun for that long. Sadly it just doesn’t even compare to the gelato in Florence we ate, but I am planning on finding something in comparison. When we got back to the water taxi station we told the others of our previous ride, and opted the same route again. Hurried on we did, and hurried right on off again when we got to our stop. All in all, we saved over $20 in transportation costs today. Some may call that unethical, while those of us on study abroad, with a more optimistic outlook call it thriftiness. Think what you may. On the way back we checked out the incredible St. Marks Cathedral,

In front of St. Marks Cathedral

...which aside from Haggia Sophia has the most amazing mosaics in the world. The architecture in and around Venice is more then amazing. Living as we do in suburban America is such a different way of life in comparison to how these people live here. We then strolled back to the hotel and are preparing for our free day tomorrow and traveling to Paris...except we don't really want to leave Italy...

I know Ashley doesnt, she is trying to stay postive. I obviously dont, and
Ali is fighting back tears just thinking about it.
But we will rock it up Paris as well, no worries.

Nothing like a late night gelato at 11:30 pm. Never gets old..

Gelat numero 10

Ciao!