While in Venice, we visited some of the nearby islands in the Venetian Lagoon. Like I mentioned earlier, our hotel ordered us a free private water taxi to Murano. Having our own boat was pretty awesome. It was about a 20 minute ride to Murano. You can also take a normal water taxi to the islands. We bought a two day unlimited pass.. but didn’t end up needing it that much because we opted to walk a lot while in Venice and took a gondola and this private boat. Oh well, we did use the pass while traveling from Murano to Burano and back to Venice. The water taxis are slow because they make a lot of stops, so sometimes we thought it was more efficient to just walk while in Venice.
Murano is known for its glass. They have glass blowing factories and live demonstrations and you can even blow glass in a class. Danny and I had already made things in a glass blowing class a few years ago, so we didn’t take any classes, but we did walk around in several glass stores and bought some glass jewelry. The streets were literally lined with glass shops. Just beware of fake Murano glass, if you are worried about that, you can search on trusted websites that will tell you marks of authenticity to look for. Also, right when our private taxi arrived, there were people there to greet us and welcome us, they were directing us to a “private glass blowing tour,” but we weren’t interested so we said no. The guy was very insistent but we declined and walked away. I later read online that there are people who will do that and they doop you in to buying expensive fake glass and there are hidden costs to the “free factory tour.” That didn’t end up seeming like an actual glass blowing factory-according to people online. So if you plan to tour a factory or take a class, just do research on it beforehand.
It was a HUGE calzone!
While waiting for the water taxi to take us back to Venice, we got some gelato at a cafe nearby. It was my favorite gelato in Italy. I got lemon and it was so creamy which is why I liked it so much. It was from Fritto Misto right on the corner of Fondamenta dei Squeri and Viale Marcello. I think most people get fried seafood from there, but their gelato was a pleasant surprise.
See other stops on our trip to Europe: Copenhagen, Brussels, Vatican City, Rome, Venice