Welcome to the City of Water aka Venice, Italy! I LOVE this city and its intricacies and vaccinating buildings and history, however despite being here twice previously, Venice does not always agree with me!
After a great start to the day in what I heard was a beautiful breakfast room (I was at a different hotel for accessibility reasons) the tour was off on foot to the large water taxi (takes about 80 people) which was taking us to the Island of Murano. Everyone got to sit under cover where it was WARM except for myself who was sitting on the top deck of the boat as I could not safely make it down the stairs! Sure glad I had brought my jacket!
For those who do not know the significance of the island of Murano, it is when the Venetian Murano glass is made. Simply beautiful and amazing glassworks! It is said that the trades people who could create Murano glass eons ago had a free rein to do anything including marrying royalty – however they could not leave the island! We arrived at the store which also had a factory attached, to see a glass blowing demonstration and then an introduction to Murano glass wares in the store. Very expensive stuff too!
I have uploaded a video I took of the “Master” glass maker creating a horse here!
Once done with the demonstration and browsing or those who wanted to purchase glassware to bring home, we waited for a replacement water taxi as our original one had developed mechanical issues! Better this happen before we get on the boat and cross the channel!
We arrived from Murano at a Pier near St. Marcos Piazza and took a leisurely walk across 3 large bridges, which thankfully for me, are ramped also at this time of year. Arriving in St. Marcos Piazza, we saw that the tide was high and there was some water pooling – only a few inches deep. The City had put some raised sidewalks out to avoid the pooling water however as person with a walker does not do well on the raised walkway (past personal experience) due to its width and the number of people walking in both directions, I decided to walk through the large puddles! Everyone thought I was crazy but I had my waterproof shoes on and it was actually much safer (and fun!) for me to do!
The included part of the tour was now over we launched into the Optional tour that we had signed up for! I was both mentally and physically prepared for this! We were lead through the lesser travelled streets of Venice by a tour guide and it was lots of fun seeing this part of Venice without getting lost! Only downside were the 4 bridges that had to be crossed…and they did not have ramps! Many thanks to Liz for keeping me motivated and going on this tour!
Arriving safely back at St. Marco’s Piazza, with our timed, skip the line entry into the church, the group was able to enter the amazing St. Marcos church and we had a short tour! My favorite part was looking at the floor and the intricate marble work that was inlaid. It was a different tour than the ones I had taken in 2019 and 2022 when visiting – a lot of the church was roped off and one could not see as much! So there was a positive experience traveling at the end of COVID – must more space and ability to move around!
Now we had time for shopping and I had 2 destinations on my list after we found some lunch! Mikael recommended a gluten free pizza place near St. Marco Square, so the 4 of us were off to locate it! Funny enough we found others from our group dining there too! The name of the restaurant was Rossopomodoro Venezia San Marcos Neapolitan. We had pizza and salads and were quite satisfied with the meal! Only thing to note is that the restaurant is NOT AIC certified.
Now Liz and I went power shopping! For my last 2 visits to Venice I have tried to get to the yarn store that I have read lots about, and this time I was determined to get there! We were successful! We had loads of fun using Google maps to lead us – I did not know that Google Maps cannot distinguish between small narrow alleys and wider walking streets so I think we walked about twice as much as we needed to!
Then, stop 2 – the mask store which makes paper mache masks and is a really fun, unique store to shop in. My friend Karen, who passed away this month, 3 years ago, had originally taken me to this store in 2019 – before we all got on a cruise. It specializes in masks and cats – what a combination! A very eclectic store! We wished we had brought Anne and Richard (who has a cat) with us!
Now our power shopping was completed, it was time for us to take a vaporetto (public boat) back to the Lido where we were staying as due to the shopping, we had opted not to take the scheduled tour boat back. For me, taking the vaporetto is always an entertaining experience – the boat sways at the dock – up, down and sideways – trying to get on is sometimes a leap of faith! That said, the person manning the ropes on the boat does watch out for people in wheelchairs, walkers and parents with prams.
We arrived back on the Lido in one piece and walked back to our respective hotels and had an early night! I really needed a jacuzzi, however a hot shower would be a good substitute! See you tomorrow when we depart Venice and check out Pisa!





























