Venice – Day 3
2:20pm, Burano
I didn’t sleep well last night, due to imagining several possible endings to last night’s incident and the fact that I woke up at 4am last night and realized I didn’t have my passport. I hadn’t remembered seeing it in my wallet yesterday where it was supposed to be. I realized that when I’d checked in at the 
hostel, I gave the guy at the desk my passport, went to my room, came back, and signed/paid for my stay, but definitely did not get my passport back. So I went back down first thing in the morning and asked if they still had it. Thank God they did! They hold onto guests’ passports until they’ve paid, but I definitely did pay so that’s kinda weird. I’m just glad I didn’t lose it!
Around 9:15 I was strolling through Canaregio, en route to the vaporetto stop. I picked up my breakfast yogurt and bread, and also bought a few apples at a stand on the street.
The boat to Murano took 10 minutes. Murano is where all the glass-blowing is done. They have buildings labeled ‘fornace’ (furnace) where you can go in and watch them actually doing it. I saw some chandelier pieces being made. Usually there is one person shaping/baking the glass, while another person heats up this orange stuff and uses it to maybe seal the glass? Both the glass and the orange stuff are put on the ends of long sticks that can be blown through and turned. Really fun to watch. All the glass products they make are so pretty. I bought this necklace with 5 silver square beads spaced out on a thin cord, with small silver glass beads in-between. So pretty, but I probably won’t wear it much.
Murano is actually kind of big – all the walkways along the canals are lined with glass shops, which gets slightly redundant. The vaporetto runs all through the island, so I caught one back to the main port and then another 30-minute ferry to Burano.
Burano = lots of bright, pastel-colored buildings. Awesome!
4:30pm
I really liked Burano. It had all these colorful houses along the canals, basically every color you can think of out of a pastel box. There were lots of restaurants and shops too, and naturally plenty of tourists. Burano is also known for its lace, which is sold in the form of fans, umbrellas, tablecloths, etc. Boy is it hot out here!
PS – I refuse to pay €1 to use a public toilet! I attempted to use the one on the ferry but it was just a hole on the floor with continuous flushing going on. Fun times, let me tell ya.
It was another 5 minute ferry to Torcello, which is home to a Veneto-Byzantine cathedral called Santa Maria Assunta. Unfortunately no photos were allowed… grr. But basically, inside above the altar was a huge Madonna mosaic in the apse, under the arch/dome, with the background completely made from gold mosaics, with the 12 apostles beneath her. So gorgeous! The wall across from it had another large mosaic depicting different religious scenes. The rest of the church was made of dull bricks with wooden boards running across maybe 20ft off the floor.
Aside from that, Torcello doesn’t have much else. At all. Apparently it was hit with malaria way back in the day and hasn’t been the same since.
God, I am really scrimping on food here. I am getting by on so little it’s ridiculous. So not only am I not blowing all my money on food, but I’m also not eating anywhere near as much as I normally do when I’m not *high on traveling*. Plus I am walking so much more. At this rate, I’ll be 5 lbs lighter when I get home. That’s not to say all I eat is bread – I do like to have a nice Italian meal for dinner, at a trattoria. Plus a daily gelato and sometimes coffee. Everything in moderation, I suppose.
After I got back to the mainland, I took a vaporetto up the Grand Canal and got to see lots of buildings I hadn’t seen before. I also listened to this guy who has traveled in an insane amount of countries and lived in several (e.g. born in the US, lived in Ireland for 10 yrs, now lives in Spain). He’s an international property broker. He was wowing a few girls nearby on the boat with his travel stories.
Afterwards I wandered around a long time looking for a dinner spot. I was unsuccessful and in much foot pain because of it. I settled on some hot sandwiches near St. Mark’s Square and hung out there, listening to the various classical performances outside the fancy restaurants. They played all the typical Italian pieces, but the crowd loved it. I have to say, the square was pretty lit up at night and the cheesy music made it more complete 
I then proceeded to get lost on my way back to the hostel, not something particularly fun at night.
