Murano

Today we went to Murano which is a small island where they make all the glass, that Venice is so famous for. I can see why they are so famous for it too. IT'S FREAKING BEAUTIFUL! Just what they can do with glass is amazing…excuse me I teared up a little. I don't wanna bore you with the details of getting there but it was a long vaporetto ride but a great view of the sea and all the surrounding islands. Also Aunt Jane pointed out the Hotel Metropole where my cousin Gwen and her husband Michael stayed during a very special trip about 8-9 months before their first child was born.

In Murano we had a great time checking out all the stores and surprisingly there wasn't much of a repeat of items. Each shop had a different type of glass or style they were selling and it was really interesting looking through them all. It was tough looking for the right things to buy as gifts seeing that each store had another great piece that would do as well.

Unfortunately for me, Aunt Jane had that dilemma with three stores all over Murano. This equaled a lot of walking back and forth for Everett. Unhappy Everett. At least as a male I was able to buy a lot of things for myself. Sarcasm. Good thing I am such a good boyfriend/friend/brother/son/grandson/great-grandson that I buy gifts for everyone.

Anyway, Jane got some goodies for herself. Including a necklace from a really nice store which the shopkeeper was very nice and spoke great English. He also loved us. We went in when we first got there and he showed us everything around which was beautiful jewelry and glassware. We wanted to see what else Murano had to offer though so we left and promised we'd come back. After lunch and seeing the other stores Jane's eyes were set on one of his necklaces. So we came back like we promised and he was overjoyed to see us again. She bought the necklace and while he was wrapping it up gave us his life story about how he went to the US for like a week and we heard about what he did every minute of every day of that week. It took him about a half hour to wrap the stinking necklace cause of the story, which I could've done in about 30 seconds. Anyways we said our goodbyes to him, didn't last very long and went to the vaporetto to return to Venice.

That was a huge debacle. We stayed in Murano for a lot longer then we planned and left around 4:30. We waited at the vaporetto station where we were originally dropped off for the water bus. It never came. About 20 minutes into waiting some Italian lady comes into the station screaming something to her entourage which makes them all leave basically running away. We have no freaking idea what is going on. Luckily a nice girl came back to tell us in very broken English that the bus we were waiting for wasn't coming to this station. Took us a few minutes to try and understand what she was saying. We finally understood we need to go to a different station and away we went. Without consulting with our favorite Murano glass shopkeeper for directions. Which led us to a station where the bus wasn't going. Not his fault though we found out what the correct stop was and thats where we went. After like twenty minutes we arrived luckily to  water bus waiting for us I assume. Right after we went on the vaporetto left and gave us a nice view of the islands on our way back home. Since we were tired we took a nice little rest at the apartment before going to dinner.

At dinner we got very lucky with the restaurant who was full of reservations, they brought out another table for us to watch the UFEA Finals. Italy vs Spain and you could tell Italy was into it. About 300 people sat on the ground around our restaurant just to get a glimpse of the game. Sad to disappoint them but Italy lost 4-0. Not a great game. Also our restaurant was super busy due to all the customers so I didn't get my pizza til like 2 hours after I ordered it. It was still good but not as good as the others I've had. I was very upset Italy lost cause I kinda wanted to see a riot or at least something special like a Spanish fan get beat up, but one can only hope. I am pooped and am going to bed.

Ciao!

Aunt Jane's take:

Murano was great. It's like a miniature Venice with canals, but shorter buildings. There are some beautiful glass shops, and we saw some amazing pieces (also, some junk, but that is how the biscotti crumbles). 

 We had a great lunch at Trattoria Busa Alla Torre. I convinced Everett to try some moeche, which are basically mini soft shell crabs. Sorta like soft shell crab poppers. Yum! Everett thoroughly enjoyed his lunch of fried seafood (shrimp, calamari, etc.). Venetian's love to fry stuff - fish, veggies, whatever will hold batter and not fall apart in the deep fryer. Anyway, he let me have a bite and I can attest it was delicious. I had some lovely grilled sole and an insalata mista.

We did do some shopping, and yes, I had a few dilemmas. Everett was very patient, just like I was in all the men's shops in Roma...just sayin'.


Lots of neat glass sculpture was scattered around Murano.

 
Our return from Murano was a little complicated. What Everett calls a "debacle," I call "well, that's Italy." There was a regatta in the Lagoon, so some  of the vaporetti were being rerouted. It took us longer to return than we anticipated, and involved some extra walking, but we needed to work off those moeche. No harm, no foul.

We were sad to see Roma defeated tonight. We watched the game outdoors on Campo Santa Margherita. We scored the last table at a ristorante/pizzeria (helps to be a pushy NY'er sometimes), and watched on a big screen TV set up outside the restaurant with 300 people. The crowd grew more subdued as the game wore on, but most people seemed like very good sports in the end. Even "almost naked guy" who we ran into on our way out of the piazza seemed to be handling the loss (of the game and his pants and shirt) well.

Lots on the agenda tomorrow. Buona notte and ciao!