Well this morning I was awoken to birds landing on our tent and shaking the whole structure as they perked. I also had some uninvited roommates of ants that were crawling all around and even on me! I somehow managed not to scream and wake up the others in the tent. However, when I left to walk to the washroom I stepped in a lizard! This time I screamed as I heard its tail scrunch under my foot it did manage to runaway afterwards so I hope I didn’t hurt it too bad.,,
Andrea and I then made our way from the mainland back to Venice for our day of Island hopping. Beforehand we sat down for a quick coffee and croissant, but don’t worry no seagulls attacked us this time.
Our first stop was to the island of Murano. It defiantly took longer than we thought it would to get there. We were under the impression that the boats that went through the islands were more for tourists use, but they are sort of like a bus! They have multiple stops typically one for each island, but sometimes two, one on either end. When we got there we followed the other tourists that got off and walked along the perimeter to a glass studio where there was a free demonstration taking place. It was fascinating! The glass master first of all is a job carried on by those in the family and like the profession that is passed down through the generations. Therefore there is no actual place or school you can go to learn. It also takes an average ranging between ten to fifteen years from the age of fourteen before you can master the trade. The glass is over 1000 degrees Celsius and when it is being formed it looks as though it is a soft and tangible plastic. Constant spinning, rotations, pressing onto surfaces and blowing the metal pole are the only things used to make the creations. In the demonstration it took him less than two minutes to make a figurine of a horse and when we were later shown to the store it was being sold for fifteen Euros! After walking around the island which was mainly just workshops and very expensive store filled with glassworks we made our way to the island of Burano.
Now I was super excited to go to Burano as I had seem so many photos of all the colourful houses and wonderful handmade lace that the island is known for. Back in the day when the fisherman use to head back home from a day out on the sea with a bit too much of alcohol there weren’t able to easily identify high house was theres. So as a result, their wives started to paint their houses in outlandish colours so that the husband could easily identify which was their house.Now it was so much more in person! The colours are all in array with different colour window shutter and curtains covering their front doors. There are bridges that allow you to cross the water and boats in the front of the houses rather than parked cars! As we weaved our way through the alleys away form the main drag the colours still continued on. We ventuakly waked the whole side of the island and ended up by a fishing port where all the nets were hanging from a day our in the water. As we walked back to I admired all the lace along the street stands, we got back on the boat and headed over to the island Lido.
Now by the time we got to Lido not only were we bombarded by tourists since this is apparently the resort island we were also starving. We headed into the first restaurant that we could see and watched all the tourists pass by who looked like they were returning from the beach. We went the opposite way of the crowd and magnates to find a beautiful beach. It must have been all imported sand but it was so nice and sort between our toes. After walking along the beach we headed back to the boats and we needed to make sure that we would be able to get back to the camp site before night. As we were on the boat it started to pour of course we were completely unprepared so we wrapped our scarves around our heads for just a little protection. From the boat terminal we dashed to the train back to the mainland and thankfully when we got off then train the majority of the rain subsided. As a out stop on the walk to the camping site we grabbed some of the very best gelato I have ever had and went straight asleep as soon as we managed to make it back to our tent!