I arrived yesterday morning in Italy after an easy ferry ride from Croatia. I took the train from Ancona up to Venice and have have been spending the past two days exploring Venice.
Like Amsterdam, Venice is a city of canals. Venice consists of 117 islands connected by bridges and canals to form one city.
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| Venice Canal |
This means, while beautiful, Venice is hard to navigate. Narrow, old streets weave around canals and buildings with seemingly no order. I figured I would use my phone GPS and find my way around with few problems; however, Venice may have gotten me back for bragging about how well Google Maps mobile works. My plan worked right up until I needed to find the hostel I was staying in. I got to the place my phone pointed to and… there was nothing there! A kind Italian couple took pity on me and walked around with me until we found someone who knew where the hostel was. Unfortunately I was very much off course by this point and an extra hour of wondering around with a gigantic pack is never fun. I was utterly exhausted, so I was really excited when I finally managed to find the street the hostel was one. However, as I got closer I found that the entire area had been blocked off by the police. I finally found out that it had something to do with a suspicious package, and that there was no way I could get to the hostel for at least another hour (bringing me perilously close to the time the hostel reception would be closing). Fortunately the situation was resolved and the street opened up just in time for me to check in.
Today I went over to the island of Murano with some folks I met at the hostel. Murano,famous for its glass blowing is about fifteen minutes by boat from the center of Venice. Historically Venice has been known for its glass blowing industry. However, that industry was moved to Murano in the 1200s due to fire concerns. Later the island was used to seclude the glass blowers so they couldn’t share trade secrets. Any glass blower who left Murano was assassinated for the crime of treason.
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| From Glass statue on Murano |
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| Modern day glass blowing on Murano |
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| Modern day glass blowing on Murano |
So having gone to Murano, the other outlying islands that are really charming are Burano (famous for lace) and Torcello (ancient church). In the summer, I just liked going out to the islands in the boats and being on the water.
I’m enjoying reading your blogs – keep it up!
Margaret