We headed off on foot to the ferry terminal passing through San Marco piazza- and seeing the hundreds of people queued to go in to the Basillica. We'd already decided we didn't need to see the inside that badly, so not an issue for us.

The island of Murano a 20min ferry from our base, reknown for its glass blowing, was our first stop. We saw a quick demonstration before walking through the shopping area lining the main canal. With dozens of shops lining the canals and 3 out of 4 selling blown glass it was an amazing sight. We saw some incredibly artistic pieces, and lots of jewellery. It was a rather painful experience for Scott and Darryl, with the girls wanting to go into most of the shops. Scott found a glass scorpion that made him a lot happier. Kate was extra pleased to find a cheese knife she really liked (she'd been looking for the right one since we arrived in Europe - but nothing had been quite right and the rest of the family were betting that she'd be going home without one!)

The next ferry was to take us to Burano or Torcello - the queue was at least 50m long - must be diabolical in peak season. The ferry was crammed and it wasn't very pleasant so we got off at the closest stop Torcello, a lovely little island, much slower paced with the greenery that was missing from the main Venezia island. A brief stop to fuel up and rest our legs and a peaceful walk to the church at the end. Unfortunately it's mosaics were under repair so we missed viewing them, but we did see an artist doing some lovely water colour paintings and picked one out to bring home. Then onto Borano a gorgeous little island with brightly coloured houses, definitely our favourite, where traditional lace making is the highlight. We watched a lady stitching, and saw some intricate lace work, and then wandered around the beautifully coloured shops and buildings.
Back to Venice and we played pick a path on our way home, each of us taking a turn to choose an alley to go down to see if we could make our way back without consulting a map. Interestingly we didn't have too much trouble finding our way as we all recognised different shops.
An evening stroll for the adults while the kids did the dishes was a nice way to end the evening - we saw San Marco Square at night - which was a lot quieter.

Sarah: The glassblowing was really cool to watch. The way the made the lace work was interesting to watch - it was hand stitched with a needle.
Scott: I bought a green and black scorpion.
Darryl: Borano is a cute little place. It was nice to see some greenery on Torcello as we haven't seen any around Venice yet.
April: The village of Borano is really pretty and colourful.