Daily Details: July 11

The day started off in a very luxurious manner. A glass company on the Murano Island had invited us to come tour their showroom, and they picked us up in these high-speed, fantastic boats made with some of the most gorgeous wood I had ever seen and ivory, upholstered seats. When we get there, we are taken into one of the workshops. Here, a man does a demonstration that is only done for tourists. He makes a little bud vase and a horse sculpture out of clear glass. We are told that to make any of their real pieces, it takes around 6 glass-blowers and many, many hours. Touring their showroom is unbelievable! The chandeliers they make are some of the things I found most impressive, but there was a whole room full of a glass technique I had never seen before, and it blew me away! One of my favorite pieces was a glass violin in that room.

Next, we crossed all the way across Venice in a vaporetto, or water taxi, to visit St. Mark’s. Although much, MUCH smaller in size compared so some of the basilicas and cathedrals we have seen, this one definitely still has its own grandeur. Walking inside was a real treat—the whole interior is covered in mosaics. I cannot even begin to fathom how long it must have taken to do all of them! In this church, we’re not supposed to take photos or talk. That was the case in the Sistine Chapel too, but no one listened. It was loud and cameras were snapping away. Here though, people respected that rule, and it was the first church we’ve visited where I felt like it was a special, holy place. I quite enjoyed it.

After having visited St. Mark’s, we were starving. We decided to go back to the same bistro we dined at on our first evening here. It was still breezy and marvelous, and I enjoyed my entire plate of spaghetti. Something that is so interesting to me here are the birds—they aren’t afraid of anyone. We had birds fly right onto our table and attempt to seize our food. It was kind of a nuisance, but charming in its own way.

My favorite part of the day came after dinner and some shopping—heck, it was one of my favorite things I’ve done this entire trip. It was a gondola ride in the canals of Venice! We were lucky enough to get a great deal and a VERY good-looking gondolier. ;) The gondolas themselves are beautiful, and our gondolier told us about the special way they are made so they can steer the boats with just one man doing the oar on the one side. They glide through the water like you would not believe! He told us about famous buildings and bridges we passed, floods where the water was higher than the windows of the first stories on buildings, etc…It was neat to hear this history of Venice. My favorite thing he did was sing to us though. We had teased him at the beginning, asking him if he would sing, and I didn’t think he would. Then, when we got on smaller canals, he would start to sing to us. He sang two BEAUTIFUL Italian songs, and then I had to chuckle when he started singing, “when the moon hits your eye…”. The gondoliers seem to know EVERYONE, and they chat with each other and passers on the street as they row past. If they get TOO close to another gondolier while they’re singing though, they stop because they get embarrassed. Ha ha!

When the ride ended and the sun had just dipped below the horizon, I could barely bring myself to leave the boat. It was one of the most wonderful things I have ever done. This is going to sound REALLY corny, but it’s like that ride made my heart just a little bigger with love. I don’t know what Paris has in store, but right now, I cannot imagine a more romantic place in the world than Venezia.