Dave and Brian's Excellent Adventures

Feb 27 2nd day in Venice and then 3rd day off to Milan

Last Friday, the 25th was our 2nd day in Venice. We got to sleep in longer than usual. All the other days we had wake up calls anywhere between 6am to 6:30am and had to be on the bus anytime between 7:00 to 7:45am, depending on the tours schedule. We met our tour guide at 9am and walked to the boat docks and boarded a boat we all could fit in and rode to the island of Murano, known for glassblowing factories. We had a wonderful demonstration by a Master glassblower, who made a vase and a horse standing on its back legs. The horse was clear but had a blue color streaked through it. He created the shape of the horse from a blob of hot glass in only about 2 minutes. Then someone talked to us in a showroom about the different colors, and prices, etc. Then we had awhile to browse... there was room after room after room of things. I picked up one small tumbler shaped item with blue panels on it. There were scenes of Venice on each panel. One scene was of a person in costume to represent the Carnivale. A salesperson told me I could pick it up. I thought it was 210 Euro but at a closer look, I saw it was 1210 E - Yikes! I very carefully set it back down and walked away from it! Luckily one of the others asked where ornaments were, which I was interested in, so I followed her. They were in a room down one floor where things were much cheaper..... you know, the room they do not like to tell you about. I am sure most things were not of the highest standard. I found vases and horses like the one the Master had made in our demonstration - it turned out that these were the demonstration pieces. The vases were only 20E and the horses were only 10E so of course I had to get those. The vase had their stamp on it too which is great. They would not take a credit card nor ship them so I have been carrying them around. They are very light luckily and are packed well with bubble wrap. I do not want to carry them on our train trip so will need to get them shipped home. After that we got back on the boat and went to the island of Burano. The houses and shops there are all different colors and there are alot of nice little stores and restaurants. I bought myself a carnivale mask and a small mask that is a wall hanging (like a jesters head with paper curls with bells on them. The paper has scenes from Venice on them. I had been looking for one of those too, so was happy to find just the right one. I also bought 2 pieces of jewelry that were made by the couple who run the store. BTW, it was a rainy, cold day. After those boat tours I walked around a bit with the G5 girls and Mama and then I went back to the room to chill out. I later walked around to window shop and bought myself a nice sandwich and a pastry to eat in my room. I saw the figure skating exhibition on tv which I was happy about - it went late though.

The next day we left Venice and went about 2 hours to Verona, where Juliette and Romeo were supposed to have been. There is a colosseum there that in the summer is used as an outdoor theater. We saw a statue of Juliet underneath what they are claiming to be the balcony she stood at to call to Romeo, although there is no proof she ever lived in that house The guide told us that people have been rubbing one spot of the statue and that now that spot shows its original brass color - turns out the spot is her right breast (she is dressed). We did not get time to rub it, but I think I can live without having done that. We then bussed another 2 hours to Milan. We were going to be dropped off in a square for 2 hours to walk around. I was pooped and opted to go back to the hotel. Later we went to a very neat restaurant for our farewell dinner. I one of the few that got dressed up and I even wore my mask for a bit and everyone took photos of me. We all had our goodbye hugs and said we will e-mail eachother, which I already have some of them so they will have it when they get home. Yesterday, I took a train from Milan to Turin, which was 2 hours. I was shocked that it was only 7.90 Euros. Then I took a 2 1\2 bus ride to Pragelato that only cost 4.70 E. Cheap enough! A woman who joined the trip part way sat next to me. She spoke a little English and was determined to talk to me. She was very nice. I asked her the correct way to pronounce suitcase and she said I could say baaggage. I needed to remind the driver that I had luggage underneath as I could see at each stop that people would open the underneath of the bus and get their things out themselves, and I wanted him to leave me enough time to do that. The woman who sat next to me got off before me and she very kindly told the driver about my luggage and he actually got out and opened up the bus for me. So, the tour was awesome, and I highly recommend this tour and the company, which is Globus. I want to go back and see Southern Italy.

David and I will leave here on Thursday and start our train adventure. We will get home on March 10th. I will write and include photos sometime after that. Take care.
Ciao, ciao. Love and take care, Mom\Rosemary

posted by DaveandBrian @ 3:35 AM