Traghettos and Tiziano
We started our second day in Venice with another Piazza San Marco meet up with Elisa, my Venetian tour guide friend. Assessing my freshly injured situation from the day before, she figured out the best route so we could go ahead with our plans with less walking. This meant crossing the Grand Canal by traghetto (the gondolas that serve as ferries just for crossing, at 7 points along the Grand Canal). The fact that I was still able to get around after my fall on Day 1 was incredibly lucky. It was tough enough with all the steps and bridges.
We headed to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in the San Polo district. A funeral was in progress when we reached it so we had Elisa prep us to go on our own a little later. We bid her adieu, had an al fresco lunch, and tackled the Frari. This church is famous for its Titian paintings. Unfortunately, the main altar painting (The Assumption) was being restored and behind scaffolding. Luckily several other masterpieces are housed here, including another Tiziano, “Madonna di Ca’ Pesaro”, Donatello’s St. John the Baptist, a 13th century painted crucifix and Bellini’s “Madonna with Child and Saints”.
We spent the evening dining on wonderful Venetian seafood, and then strolled to Piazza San Marco’s 300 year old Caffe Florian. There, we joined a most appreciative audience, enjoying musicians who seemed so pleased to be out there playing beautiful music. Dan hugged some of his fave guys outside the Basilica, the Four Tetrarchs, as we made our way home.
Brilliant Burano
Our last full day in Venice, we headed to the island of Burano, the lace makers’ island. First we made our way through a yet unexplored (by us) part of our neighborhood to the north shore of Venice. From there, we caught the vaporetto that takes you to the islands like Murano and Burano. Burano was, and I guess still is a fisherman’s island. The fishermen chose to paint their houses in all sorts of bright colors to see them easily from the sea. Now I am all about color, so you can imagine I’ve waited a while to see this place! The fishermen’s wives took up lace making to supplement their incomes and we were thrilled to see a woman creating lace during our visit. Also caught a sweet wedding ritual. And I found something I had to hug…. I mean, it was purple house for crying out loud.
Upon our return to Venice proper, we stopped at the Florian for coffee and a break. Then we made two or three failed attempts at going to San Giorgio Maggiore, just across the water. We had hoped to make it over there and go up the bell tower for spectacular views. But, it was not meant to be. We took it as a sign that we’d have to wait till next time, and there will definitely be a next time.
Instead, we found the charming via Garibadi. A classic Venetian restaurant for dinner, with wonderful sunset views and excellent people watching. To finish our night we took rides on Vaporettos 1 and 2 to get our Grand Canal fix. Every visit to Venice should include an evening ride up and down the Grand Canal, whether by gondola, taxi boat or vaporetto. It captures all the exquisite nuances of this jewel of a city.
