We are in Venezia! However, you know that this would not be a Jan and Bo vacation without some type of transportation fiasco. Well, this one almost resulted in a vacation fail and we hadn’t even left Seattle! Making our flight out of town got very sketchy when the Shuttle Express decided not to pick us up for our prepaid transportation to the airport. We called them at 20 minutes late and were informed that they did not have a shuttle in our area-and would not have for quite some time. Really? With no further explanation as to why this was the case, they said that they would give us a refund, but that we needed to find another ride. Never had an issue in the past. Time for a scathing Yelp review! Thankfully, our wonderful neighbors, Dave and Carol, came to our rescue and drove us through the hideous Seattle morning commute. The rest of the journey was uneventful, but long. A total of 21 hours to get here and, of course, no sleep! We are exhausted, but so excited to be here!
Our apartment is quite lovely. It has an added bonus of being 2 minutes from the vaporetto dock(water taxi) and within walking distance to restaurants, mercatos(grocery stores) and everything else we need. We are in the Castello neighborhood. It is where actual Venetians live-not a tourist area. The Naval Museo is here and the Bienale(Bee-EN-al-ay) international exhibition of art in odd years and architecture in even years. The gardens and grounds are as beautiful as the exhibits.
Our first full day the weather was phenomenal-70 degrees! Today it is back to the normal cool and foggy. Sounds like we are at home! We took a vaporetto to Murano. It was fun to be outside of the main canal and boating in the open lagoon! Murano is one of 2 famous islands in the lagoon and is known for the internationally famous Murano glass. (The other island is Burano and is known for its hand made lace and colorful building facades.) Murano was a commercial port as far back as the 7th century and became quite a success. In 1291 , the Venetian Republic ordered all the glass makers to move their foundries to Murano, due to the fire danger it represented to Venice. By the 14th century, the glass artisans were treated as royalty. In many respects, they are still. There is a Seattle connection here-Dale Chihuly studied the many and varied techniques of Murano glass making for 5 years. We were in a gallery where the owner knew him. When he found that we were from Seattle, he was so enthusiastic! Just an education to listen to him describe the processes! Most of the artwork is molto caro(very expensive), but we did manage a small purchase. A lovely remembrance for a lovely day.
Marco Polo Airport Boat Dock
Hmm, never really thought about package delivery in Venice.
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