Island Hopping

We took a little jaunt over to the island of Murano yesterday morning to check out a little bit of the island. Luckily it was a bit overcast this morning, so the sun wasn't *too* bad. Because Venice is really a "pedestrian-only" city, the best way to get around is on a vaporetto. They're like the buses of the sea. Today was our first day going on them, so we decided to get day passes so we could use them whenever we wanted. It's no gondola ride, but you do get beautiful views of the city!

We got to Murano around 10:30. The island is cute with different-colored buildings and glass shops everywhere! For those of you who don't know, Murano is famous for it's glass making. So that's why we went to the Museo del Vetro! It's a small museum, but it has beautiful glass ranging from over 2,000 years ago up until the present-day. There were so many beautiful things to look at!

After visiting the museum, we walked around for a little bit and visited one of the churches on the island - Church of Santa Maria e San Donato. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, but it's known for its beautiful mosaic floors. Apparently the church contains the relics of St. Donatus and there are also bones hanging from behind the altar, which is said to be the bones of the dragon that he slain...

Outside of the Church of Santa Maria e San Donato

After Murano, we went back to the San Marco sestiere for some tasty pizza. After lunch we decided to head back to the apartment for a break. At around 3:30, we went back out and visited Ca' Rezzonico. This is a popular house museum that is dedicated to 18th century Venice. Each of the rooms were decorated as it would be during that time period, which was very beautiful!

Ceiling art

Next, we hopped on another vaporetto to check out a popular look-out point in the Dorsoduro sestiere. As we docked, we saw a HUGE building that looked very beautiful. We saw the doors open, so we decided to go in. To no surprise, it was another church named Church of Santa Maria della Salute. We walked around for about 5 minutes before the church closed for the day. Very cool building!

We sat on the steps of the church for a bit after it closed, so we could admire the view (and rest our tired feet). Then we took a short walk to the look-out point to take in more beautiful views and dip our toes into the Adriatic Sea! Ahhh....la vita é bella!

Next, it was snack time. So we took the vaporetto back to our apartment and went to a popular bar for some drinks and cicchetti, which are little snacks (like tapas). Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the food, but all I can say is that it was all fried deliciousness! We had fried zucchini flower stuffed with cheese, fried crab claws, a fried ball of cheese and ham, calamari, fresh squid, and a fried dough with cheese and ham. All of which was paired with a red glass of cabernet sauvignon. Molto bene!

We rounded up our evening with more fresh pasta and delicious gelato. Luckily the weather was a little cooler compared to recent evenings, so it was nice to be out and enjoy the night!