The land of canals, mosquitos and glass. Rainbows of glass. Candy coloured glass. Today we had a practical lesson on getting lost in Venice( a must or a given apparently). Emma our wonderful guide extordinaire managed to get us lost at least three times whilst walking to St Marks Square. The streets or more like alley ways disappear around corners and over bridges hiding little shops of treasures and picture perfect cafes with wizened old men reading newspapers.
St Marks square appeared suddenly through an inconspicuous archway. The riches of the Doges displayed magnificently on the St Marks Basilica. Insert factoid: pigeons are sacred. So no kicking, chasing or mild maiming pigeons. Due to this fact they are everywhere. Story goes that a pigeon led the Venetians to the site of Venice islands.
No time for site seeing right then, we were booked in to the lace making school for a demo. There is an old tradition of hand making lace in Venice. Venetian Lace is world renowned but unfortunately due to the factory production and specialist skill and time it is a dying art. The school manages to stay open by a strong financial backing by the venetian people. The lace its self is very impressive but not styly enough to tempt us. The lace doily just doesn't do it in the modern world.
Now comes the classic Venice moment. The gondalor ride. Seeing the city by water gives venice another dimension. We floated blissfully around the canals in a line of gondalors while the gondeliers shouted and laughed at each other and one boat even had a "opera singer" serenading a couple. After a few lady like squeaks early on by most of the occupants we sat back and relaxed. There were boat crafts everywhere, though the traffic flows very well for the most. One traffic jam in a narrow canal but that just makes for perfect photo op and more jovial shouting. Over too soon really.
Next we go to the Island of Murano, home of venetian glass.
We took a water taxi over to Murano. From the moment we got onto the island almost every street around the water's edge had glass items being made and sold in it. However visiting the island in early afternoon meant we missed most glass blowing demonstrations, as it was too hot for glass making.
The shops were adorned with all sorts of necklaces, rings, plates, vases... etc.... and some very unique items. Whitey kept coming back to one shop which had a sweet as clock, the shop keepers, discovered we were New Zealanders after I (Kathryn) accidently said "Kiaora!" instead of "Ciao"... after seeing his confused face I explaining that we were kiwis. Soon two other guys running the shop showed up, all three of them started chatting about how much they love NZ, and asking us if we needed boyfriends! We said we'd think about it.
As we had one final look in the shop and began to leave (with whitey still eyeing up the clock), one of the shop keepers who was particularly fond of NZ called out "so come back if you want a boyfriend!.... or a clock" We laughed so hard, thanked them and left to check out what else was about in Murano.
Although in every shop... Whitey was just comparing everything to that clock... clock.clock.clock!
Finally Jess told Whitey she should either buy it or pip down about it.
Thus Jess and Whitey ventured back into the shop. They were greeted warmly by the smiling shop keeper.
"so you come back for the clock?" he says
and Whitey wittingly replys "No. The boyfriend thanks"
hahaha the shop keeper replyed half concerned half laughing "don't say that!"
Then the younger of the shop keepers showed up. He seemed rather disappointed that Whitey had gone with the clock option. Could have been a boyfriend though, although they were a little to old, the younger being in his late 20's and the other two somewhere between 40-65 ish!
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