This morning Laura and Katie got up early to go buy fish in the fish market. They enjoyed walking through the streets shortly after 7am and finding them largely deserted.
Unfortunately, today is Monday and since the fisherman don't fish on Sunday, there was no catch to be had.
Not to waste a morning where most of us were up, we all got out and decided to get a gondola ride in early. We managed to squeeze in behind a big tour group, but still got out early. We had a cool gondolier who knew his history and pointed out stuff you can only see from the canals. That was perfect.
We felt justified in our scheduling because when we returned to the starting point, a large crowd had started to form for gondola rides... we'd basically just walked up and got one.
That done, we decided to push on to St. Mark's Cathedral. Unfortunately, by that time enough cruise ship groups and tours had shown up that the line to enter stretched back practically to the lagoon. We decided it was a good day to go to Murano instead. So, we hopped on a vaporetto to take us there.
We got off at the Navagero stop which is a little less busy than others (like Faro). We wandered and looked at some shops. It was only about 11:15 but the kids were hungry so we looked for lunch. Unfortunately, that's just too early for Italians to be open for lunch. The place we wanted to eat at, Osteria al Duomo, didn't start serving lunch until noon. It had a lovely tree-filled, shady cool courtyard and lots of fresh fish specials. So we wandered over visited the Chiesa dei Santi Maria e Donato just across the canal from the restaurant. It was beautiful. It's claim to fame are the 12 century mosaics on the floors. The church itself is very old.
After lunch, more shops (which, btw, they strongly discourage picture taking inside).
I'm fine with a few shops, but the girls seemed to have taken it upon themselves to visit EVERY shop on the island. That was a bit much for Charlie and me. We broke off, and watched a glass making demonstration.
We checked in on the girls... still visiting shops, so we split up. Charlie and I headed back to Venice.
Once we landed back at St. Mark's Square, we decided to go to the top of the Campanile di San Marco. The line was pretty short. And after paying our €8 fee, the elevator wisked us up over 300 feet to the top. We were treated to an awesome view of Venice.
Meanwhile, the girls had completed their tour of Murano and decided to push on to Burano.
The girls were having fun. Charlie and I were keeping cool and doing some laundry. As it got closer to dinner, Laura texted me and asked us to join them for dinner on Burano. I checked. It was going to take Charlie and me more than an hour to get out there to meet them, but they swore that Burano was worth it. So, Charlie and hiked over to the Fondamente Nuove vaporetto stop where we could catch the 42 minute ride out to Burano.
We met the girls and they showed us around the places they'd discovered. We settled in at the Restaurant Galuppi for dinner. It was nice to be together. I had some squid ink risotto and a grilled fish fillet that was very good... oh and we polished off some of the house white that came in pitchers. It was satisfying.
After dinner it was time to head back to Venice. It was starting to have been a long day.
Walking back to our apartment, one of those things that only happens in Venice happened. We passed a small church, Santa Maria dei Miracoli, and noticed that there was a free choral concert starting in 15 minutes. Even though it was getting late, we ducked in and listened. It was choir from St. Dunstan's College in London made up of boys and girls aged 11-18. They were very good and their voices filled the small sacred space. It was a very moving experience. Even my tired kids managed to sit still and were engaged.
