Full Day in Venice
I woke up early and took a walk to the fish market that our landlord told us about. It is just over the big bridge in the San Polo area of Venice. We walked over to that bridge last night so I knew where it was. I got there early and the market was just setting up. I not only found the fish market but the fruit and vegetable markets were there as well. It was early and many of the markets were just opening up. It was pretty cool to see the city coming alive early in the morning. I even saw all the morning shipments being dropped off by barges parked all around.
When the kids woke up we started our day with a tour of the Jewish Ghetto area of Venice. We planned to meet the two young ladies, Miranda and Elizabeth, that I met on the train yesterday. Miranda’s mother went to my high school and when I found out she was Jewish I told her about the Jewish Ghetto/Synagogue tour she was excited to go. We planned to meet for the 11:30 am tour, which we did. We ended up going to the tour, which was good but our guide was less than energetic or excited about what he was doing. He knew everything about the community but was a bit rude and abrupt. We have had better guides but all in all, a very worthwhile experience.
After the tour we decided to get some food, so the gelato shop right there was first up. Imagine, another day with gelato? We then decided to take a walk to find a ferry to Murano so we could see the glass blowers working. I was reading that there were some free boat rides to the glass factories but we didn’t see any of those. We ended up taking a water bus and headed over to Murano. We walked around for about an hour or so and saw some really cool stuff, including a shop where they were making glass turtles. The glass was boiling hot and worked like putty. It was so interesting to watch them work with the glass and I took a ton of pictures of this cool glass turtle.
When the demo was over we headed back to the main part of the city to get some lunch. I had a coaching call at 4 pm so we needed to head back toward the apartment. We found a pizza storefront where Noah got a slice the day before and got a whole pie and a sandwich. Miranda and Elizabeth joined us and we sat and talked with them for the next 4 hours. It was a really nice day and we look forward to reconnecting with Miranda and her family back in So CA when we get back this summer. It is such a small world as Miranda’s mom is a big Maj player and plans two trips a year down to Carlsbad with her Maj friends in Orange County. We ended the day with a simple dinner in the apartment and now it’s time to head to bed. Another fun filled day and some work thrown in to pay the bills 🙂
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 