*See what I did there?
On our first night we rode into Mirano and had a delicious dinner where I had a zucchini carbonara epiphany (the Wee Girl had dinner envy even though her gnocchi was delicious). The hosts were great and everyone is complimenting the Wee Girl on her pronunciation – she’s very handy to have around.
We’ve enjoyed Venice although I’m getting very footsore; walking 5 hours a day is a tough gig! And no cars or bikes in Venice, only walking and boating. Alas Mr T we didn’t have a gondola ride – and not because of expense, we didn’t actually find out how much. Just because it was too hot during the day and there were gondola-jams at night. We did however take a ferry ride the entire length of the Grand Canal which was grouse.
We’re doing lots of bike riding which is excellent for my arse (although I’m also getting bum-weary). The food has been good on the whole, although we had a fairy ordinary pizza experience in Mirano – and it was recommended by where we are staying! Clearly they thought we were your average tourists, not the impeccably well-eaten tourists that we actually are.
The first day we decided to stroll down the streets of Venice sans map. This may have been a mistake, after feeling like rats in a maze we ended up somewhere near the fish markets (nowhere near the piazza San Marco). All the buildings are at least 3 storeys so you have no idea where you’re heading. We finally caved and bought a map which took us to the piazza, which was amazing. By then we could hardly walk so we hobbled to the ferry which took us back to the train station.
The next day we decided we needed more of a plan so we studied our map and agreed on a visit to Murano and Burano. Both islands a ferry ride away from Venice. So onto the ferry past the jostling pusher-inerer tourists (bastards!) and finally to Murano. Who knew that much glass in once place would just end up looking tacky and OTT, but there were some fantastic glass sculptures around the island. We did the tourist thing and took lots of photos and the Wee Girl bought microscopic glass figurines for her friends back home. There was lots of things we would have loved to purchase but 2 more weeks with suitcases full of glass didn’t seem like the best idea in the world.
The night before the Wee Girl had looked up Burano on the interweb and it is apparently the place of many beautifully coloured houses. So onto the next ferry (fighting off more pusher-inerers) and cruising over. Talk about beautiful. We found out that if you want to paint your house you have to apply to the town council and they will give you a list of colours you may use. The place looks like a painting of how an Italian town should look.
They had a Leaning Belltower of Burano (see below) which had a significant list – we admired it whilst enjoying in lunch at the Gatto Nero restaurant (fantastic fish risotto). So afterwards we followed our noses past the rainbow of houses to the church, laughed at the tower and visited a lace museum. So far it’s the only museum we’ve gone to as they wanted 40 euro per person for the Leonardo Di Vinci museum ! – and the others were similarly priced (ouch!)
On our final day we cruised on our bikes back to Mirano (after a quick side trip to Venice as the Wee Girl had decided that two of the small glass gifts she’d bought for friends could not be parted with). We found an excellent restaurant (after a brief scare when it appeared the only restaurant open for lunch was the dodgy pizza one). The owner had lived in Australia for years as a youth (surfing at Bells Beach) so when he talked English it was in an Australian surfer accent, hilarious. We had a scallop and olive gnocchi – yum! We’re going to try his other restaurant for dinner. It’s 20 minutes in the other direction (using the deadly treadlys) in Mira. He reckons his pizzas are second to none. We’ll be the judge of that…**
**We just got back – it was no brag. Best pizza we’ve had so far.
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