Vaporetto Fiasco

Well, so much for the plans!

After another wonderful breakfast, we got on the Vaporetto heading to the island of Murano followed by a trip to Burano. That meant we would take the Vaporetto from our hotel location across the Grand Canal to the next stop to reach the other side. From there, we walked 15-minute across Venice to another Vaporetto.  

That Vaporetto then took us to the first island we'd visit today: Murano, as in Murano Glass. It took about 30-min to reach the island.

For those of you who are not familiar with Venice, the Vaporetto is a boat that runs a route just like a bus in a city - only it is on water. There are lots of them with many routes and stops and you have to know what you are doing to not make any mistakes.  More about that later.

After arriving Murano, we walked around enjoying the island.

As we were walking, we ducked into this church for a rest and to see its interior.

Sisters messing around as they look into very expensive glass shops.  But they didn't buy anything!

After an hour it was time to find a Vaporetto that would take us from Murano to Burano. Easier said than done!  We were near a Vaporetto stop so we looked at the maps to see if we could get to Burano from there.  Carla is our Vaporetto expert, so we were relying on her to figure it out.  She consulted the map as well as talking to some people who were also trying to figure things out.  She finally figured out that we needed to take the #12 Vaporetto to another stop and then get a different boat to Burano.  

#12 didn't seem to be showing up.  Other boats did, but not the one we needed.  Finally, the three of us were getting frustrated because we waited 40-minutes, and we could have walked back to our first Vaparetto stop faster. So we decided to do that and it was about a 20-minute walk.  When we got to the stop in question, Karen talked to a nice ticket salesperson and found out that we needed to walk back to the second bridge and cross the canal (below) and continue to the other side of the island where we'd get the #12 Vaporetto from there. We managed but, in the process, we did a lot of walking, including back tracking. We finally found the correct Vaporetto stop for #12, waited several minutes and finally boarded and made it to Burano, but it was a fiasco.  Yay!

When we arrived in Burano, we were hungry and started to look for a restaurant that we ate at many years ago and really liked, but alas, it wasn't there anymore.  We did find another restaurant and sat down and enjoyed a nice Italian lunch.  

Very tasty Italian food in Burano.

Karen and Carla made some purchases in Burano, and we stopped at a bakery that had some cookies that Mike remembered his grandmother used to make, so we had to buy some.  It was very nostalgic for him.  We continued strolling around and then made it back to the correct Vaporetto stop to make the trip back to our hotel.  It was a long day, and we were tired when we retraced our way back to our lovely hotel. 

In the early evening it was time to go a few doors down to see the Vanni, the 'Wooden Jigsaw' creator. In business for 39-years, his creations with 3-D effect are beautiful. He uses a combination of ancient techniques of jigsaw and inlay with modern puzzle games and graphic concepts. 

Vanni in his little workshop.

Karen and Carla both bought a couple of his masterpieces (not shown). When we were here several years ago, Karen bought a building we have on display in our living room. Now she has another.

We ate a large lunch today on Burano and Mike was not hungry, but we knew if we ate nothing this evening, our stomachs would not like us. So, Bill, Karen and Carla went to a sidewalk restaurant nearby.  Salad, pizza and bruschetta did the trick and Carla took some of the salad and extra piece of Bill's pizza to Mike about 8 pm.