Day 225, 14 February 2013 - San Valentino Day - Venice, Italy. We coughed up €70 for our 3 day unlimited transport passes and merrily set off on a waterbus up the Grand Canal - Wow! Sun shining, birds singing, it was all happening. We stepped ashore at the Rialto Bridge which was packed with tourists - pretty sure Venice is the most photographed city in the world - because everything is gorgeous. We were fascinated to see a water "ambulanza" picking up a patient just near our waterbus. We saw the jet boat ambulance and expected to see paramedics carrying a stretcher... but as the Pizza shop guy said en route to a delivery - in Venice, you have to walk everywhere. So they had her in the human equivalent of a wheelbarrow - a rolling seat device with little loops for her feet. Utterly fascinated with the strangeness of Venetian life, we headed to Piazza San Marco and visited the Basilica with it's East meets West onion domes. A bit of grand larceny was involved in the establishment of this stunning cathedral - mainly involving the underhand method by which Saint Mark's bones were spirited out of Egypt. But that is all in the past! We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the gardens on the San Marco promenade and then strolled along the waterfront. It was about 3.00 pm and we passed a pier with a sign for a Murano waterbus. Now we'd planned a day trip to Murano later in the week - but we've learned the hard way that if the sun is shining and you spot a sign to somewhere you want to go, just go. So we did. As it turned out it was quite possibly the longest route possible to take to Murano, so lots of sightseeing along the way. The island was very cute and we thoroughly overloaded ourselves gazing upon works of art rendered in multi-hued glass. It was well after 4 pm when we arrived and the day-trippers had disappeared, so we had the streets and stores to ourselves which was joyous. We strolled and browsed and eventually purchased a pendant made from Murano glass, on the island of Murano. The ultimate memento of Venice. We headed back on the express, no stops ferry and the sun setting behind the islands was sublime. All this fresh air and sunshine.... bound to sleep well tonight.
(PS - today's picture is of the ubiquitous murano glass clowns.... generally think they're fabulous, but the bloke in the back row makes me think of Stephen King's novel "It". Not in a good way.)