Venice – Murano; Friday a.m., 7/18

I woke up Friday morning to the sounds of heavy rain. By the time I finished getting ready for the day, the rain had stopped. I walked over for breakfast at a sister hotel. The lobby we checked into is actually the sister hotel; breakfast is served in a room next to the front desk. That is Jen, Jeff and Dave eating breakfast.

After we finished breakfast we were to meet Jason at 10:00 in Piazza San Marco to get our museum pass. It covered many of the museums in Venice. When we went out to leave, it was raining. “Conveniently,” a peddler was selling umbrellas for 10 euros; some had bargained him down to five. Knowing that, I put 4.50 in my pocket. I went up to the guy and asked him to put up the umbrella so I could see that it worked and what it looked like. I asked him how much; I said it was too much, closed the wet umbrella, and gave it back to him. He had a fit because it was all wet; I took the 4.50 out of my pocket and showed it to him and he took it. That started my bargaining in Venice. There is a photo of Sam holding my umbrella; Jeff is making the sad face and Meredith (Jason’s babysitter) is standing next to him.

A group of us headed to P. San Marco taking pictures along the way, in spite of the pouring rain. Here’s a shot ofsome of our group “window” shopping. There was one interesting spot where I took a number of photos; I call this area “traffic jam in Venice” and I plan on doing a series of paintings based on this area. When we arrived in the big square were approached by many giving “free” passes for a taxi ride to the island of Murano to see a glass blower demonstration. I had read about them ahead of time in my travel guide; they offer a free ride over to Murano, show you the demonstration then take you up to the showroom to buy glass; and they don’t give you a ride home as they say they will. The book said they did a pretty hard sell after the demo. Regardless of he draw backs, we decided the free and fast taxi ride to the island was worth it; and it was out of the rain. I've included a photo of Judy, Thomas, Robert and Craig on our "taxi" ride and one of the demonstration. Afterward, our guide took us upstairs to the rooms with the most elaborate and expensive works of glass. Everything was phenomenal; chandeliers; all kinds of art glass; vases; wine, liquor and beverage glasses; pitchers, perfume bottles, plates… all amazing with the price to match. Down stairs the things were cheaper and less elaborate. The prices dropped as we went room to room. Knowing not to buy at the first place we went to, we left; and without any kind of hard sell. It was nice to miss the hard sell.

We visited a number of shops after we left and it was still raining. Here a shot of the harbor entering Murano and the town duomo (cathederal). Further down we found another shop that gave demos. The lighting was better here and he displayed what they made. There was no sales pitch here probably because as they were getting ready to close for afternoon siesta. At this point, we stopped for lunch. After lunch, Judy and Robert went on their own way and so did Craig and I; they went back to Venice, Craig and I stayed to take photos.