Venice: Canals, glass, and tourists

A quick train trip from Florence, Venice was a completely different Western European town from all other Western European towns we'd seen. It was built on water. Other than that...they all got to be pretty similiar. the canals did make for many picturesque spots, and also about impossible to read the map, because they had caused the city to grow haphazard.

Murano, a little island about 10 minutes by boat from Venise, is a neat little half day diversion. The island is famous for making blown glass, and a person can buy anything from cheap little trinkets to fabulous works of art. When we went we got to see a demonstration of blowing glass, which was pretty much the most fascinating part of the trip, other than that it was just shopping.

While Venice was a neat place to be, my parents and I all thought that the city was completely overrun by tourists. even though we were only there at the beginning of the heavy tourist season, it was an effort to work through some of the crowds at the monuments, or to dodge all the people walking while reading their guidebooks, thus not paying attention. Yes, we were tourists too, and we're not really being hypocritical, just that it felt easier to meet tourists than locals in both Florence and Venice.

---ciao!