Retired Nomads: May 15, 2013 Venice, Murano, Burano, Torcello, Italy

Buongiorno!

We had our final breakfast on the Pacific Princess this morning. Said more goodbyes and had some final hugs. We will miss our ship family. Even the crew when we would return from a day of touring said “Welcome home”.

Disembarkation went smoothly. We found our luggage easily and made our way out of the port and found the People Mover that transports you to Piazzale Roma (the transportation center). 2 other couples we knew from the cruise were also doing the same. Karen & Steve and Bonnie and Dennis were sitting outside waiting for their transportation when they saw us pulling all of our luggage. There was much laugher and picture taking!

The People Mover takes about 2 minutes to get you from the port to Piazzale Roma and is only about a euro each. The hard part came with the 2 bridges we had to cross with so much luggage. They are walking bridges and have steps instead of being smooth, which with only a couple of pieces it wouldn’t be so bad, but with 2 large cases each and our carryons, it was tough going.

This is our second time to Venice, but I had forgotten the bridges had steps. Where we stayed last time there were no bridges to go over and just down a couple steps to the hotel. We will take a water taxi to the airport to save our sanity!

This time we are staying 4 nights at the Hotel Antiche Figure. We were offered a free upgrade to a small suite or we could pay 25 euro per night more for a large suite. With all of our luggage it made sense to do that. They said if we wanted to wait, if no one rented it they would let us have it at no extra charge, but we said let’s just do it and get our luggage inside and we could go out and tour.

our hotel

Since we saw all the major sites in Venice on our last visit, we opted to do some day trips out of Venice. Last time we went to Murano and spent quite a bit of time there, so when we got to Burano we had about 10 minutes there and it really is a pretty place so we wanted to go back. Plus, there was a restaurant that I wanted to have lunch in so we wanted to find that. Murano is known for their blown glass and Burano is known for their handmade lace.

We checked out the train station for our 2 day trips and then bought a 72 hour Vaporetto pass (public water buses which go up and down the canal and goes to the outer islands). We took one to Murano where we stopped for Greg to have an espresso where he had one last time and we waited for the next vaporetto to Burano. That one filled up before we could get on, so we waited for the next one.

We were finally on our way. It’s a nice scenic ride and the weather in Venice today is fabulous! Actually quite warm! We arrived on Burano and set out to find Trattoria al Gatto Nero. After wandering for a while we found it and one guy said we could have the last table outside as soon as it was cleared off. Another couple came and they took the last table inside. Then, another couple comes and they were instantly greeted with champagne and were given our table. They said they had reservations. So, we could wait for at least 20 minutes or whenever a table opened up. That didn’t sit well, and we went in search of another place to eat. ARGH!

We found a nice little place with a table outside and had fried calamari and a fried fresh fish platter. Then, we wandered the quaint little island taking photos of the buildings painted in many pretty colors. We had gelato before catching the next vaporetto.

There was time to catch a vaporetto to Torcello so we checked it out. It’s the smallest of the 3 islands and not much there except a couple of hotels and an old church. (and cats, lots of cats) Though there were lots of birds and a very pretty and peaceful place.

We caught a vaporetto back to Venice and stopped into the hotel before heading out to Piazza San Marco for dinner. We found the restaurant that we enjoyed last time and went in. We were given 2 glasses of bellinis (spumante and peach juice) at no charge. We ordered a couple of pizzas….yum!