Venice day Two. So much Better!

Yeah, thats me, just chillin in Venice, no biggie.

Day two on the Venetian islands rocked my pretty blue socks. Of course, Venice had to get in one last parting shot with breakfast before settling down and allowing us to love her. The hotel (like the hotel we stayed in when we first arrived) is not equipped to handle a mass of American kids descending on their restaurants for breakfast. For Italians, breakfast is a quick affair, a little caffe or cappiccino, a couple of bites of something, then they're off. We, on the other hand, want our eggs and bacy, God help those who stand in our way. I didn't have eggs or bacon but filled up on croissants, cereal and I can't remember what else. True to our American spirit we couldn't let Venice or the hotel get away with making us unhappy so we "got our revenge" in the form of filched crackers, fruit, bread, little jars of honey and packets of nutella. God bless easily transportable food.

Sweet ruins on a island on the way to Murano.

The first stop of the day was Murano, one of the Ventian islands, known for its glass. We saw a glass blowing demonstration and saw a blob of glowing glass become a vase and another a horse in a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, the glass products were uber expensive but I made do with looking inside the shop attatched to the workshop. Maybe when I'm rich...

Then we traveled to Burano, an island even further away from the main island of Venice, thats known for its lace. This adorable little island was worth every second of the frigid boat ride. The houses are all painted vibrant colors and no two look the same. Burano was not very crowded (though it did have its share of tourists) something I highly enjoyed.

Burano has a leaning tower! Not nearly as impressive as the one at Pisa but it leans as much, if not more.

Italians (or Europeans in general) seem to be obsessed with coke but, here, on the tiny little island, I found a bottle of Pepsi. I bought it, just because it was there. Though I actually like the coke here (which is weird because I despise it at home).

Anyway, we ate lunch on Burano, I had my standard mozzerrella pomodoro, instead of fighting it out again on Venice. We had very little time on Burano which made me sad, but I'm still very happy to have visited there.

Back to Venice! This time we were smart and headed the opposite direction from San Marco Square to find the real Venice, the crowdless Venice. The Venice of tiny, narrow, tall streets and hobbit sized doorways. The Venice where I could see myself living.

We wandered and generally allowed ourselves to become (almost) lost. We found a street band playing in a square on a drum set and a curious set of round drum-like things that sounded like flutes. We also found a gelato place called Gelateria Artigianale La Mela Verde which means the Green Apple Artisan Gelateria. Super fun!

One thing I forgot to mention about Venice: at the the pier where we disembarked were groups of street musicians, playing and attempting to sell their cds. Why is this strange? They were Native Americans! Decked out in full cheiftan\warrior gear, buckskin, fringes and all, they were playing their flutes and drums and whatnot. In Venice! Its the strangest thing to step of a boat in an Italian city and hear Native American music.

One last look from the boat. Ciao, Venice, Arrivederci!