We boarded our train at the beautiful Milano Centrale and it was a bit of a struggle to find anywhere for our luggage partly because of lack of space but also that the train had come from Geneva so it already had passengers on it.
I was a pretty relaxing trip, one of the things that stood out was around Brescia where all the hills that you could see had stone sections mined out of them. I guess our desire for Italian stone is insatiable.
When we arrived at the station the kids were instantly wowed by the canal. Vaporetto travel is extremely expensive for short trips so we grabbed a 3 day pass and vowed that we would get our monies worth. If you weren't travelling with children you could probably get away with not having one as you could walk everywhere.
As it was the start of the weekend it was very busy but as it turned out it was the weekend of the Vogalonga, which is a non competitive boat regatta which made it even more hectic. Vaporettos were extremely crowded.
Our first stop was the famous Rialto bridge, which was being renovated and it was covered, you couldn't take the obligatory picture on it looking down the Grand Canal. Fortunately I knew this before hand so the disappointment was dulled a little. Although I have been here a couple of times before it was a long time ago and I had forgotten about the little details like the mosaics on St Marks Basilica and the clock building next to it. St Marks Square was busy as usual and it was funny to reflect on my first trip here when we had the whole square to ourselves, it was early morning in winter!
On our second day we did some souvenir shopping at the Rialto Market took another ride down the Grand Canal, which was amazingly busy. In the afternoon we headed out to Murano to watch some glassblowing, which the kids loved. Sebastian wants to be a glass blower now (he has also wanted to live in Rome and be a Gladiator, a flag thrower in Cortona, an Artist in Florence). I swear it was the same glass blower I had 17 years ago, I'll check the pictures when I get home.
We finished the day with a gondola ride. It was great and Sebastian is now torn between a Gondolier or a Glassblower. He enjoyed being able to wear the gondoliers hat and whistle along with him. It is crazy to think how they were able to build these buildings 600 years ago, let alone do it in the mud. There are over 400 bridges in Venice, my favourite is one of the ones that doesn't have any sides. The ride cost us 80 Euro.
Our last full day started with a wander down to the Cannareggio canal to watch the boats come in. We sat ourself down at a cafe on the canal edge, drank lots of coffee to keep the shop owners happy and watched the festivities happen on the water. It was a great morning. In the afternoon we headed out to Burano, a famous fishing village that also specialises in lace work. The houses are all painted colourfully. The story has it they did this so they could identify their house on foggy days. It was spectacular, as was the lean on the bell tower! It was a shame that we couldn't stay longer.
The trip home ended with the good wife and I not really talking as we both blamed each other for getting on the wrong ferry and probably adding over an hour to the trip home!
We stayed in the Cannareggio area, which I can highly recommend, it is a lot quieter and is more of a residential area so you get a better feel for the place.
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