Day 3 Venice

Garin here. I got up a six this morning and went for a walk as the city was beginning to stir. It’s been very warm and this morning there was a heavy, humid haze in the air. You hear painters talking about the quality of the light in Venice. And I agree. On my walk the air seemed to glow as those early morning rays bounced from droplet to droplet in the humid air. Just beautiful.
This city is always buzzing--thousands of tourists, eating hundreds of thousands of meals and buying trinkets, glass and lace. I’ve been wondering how all those goods get into this city--how do they distribute all that stuff efficiently through the city without plugging up the 6-foot wide pedestrian streets?

We this morning I found out. It all comes in by boat (duh!). A mosquito fleet of narrow barges stream through the back alley canals early in the morning, before they are plugged with gondolas and water taxis shuttling visitors to and from their hotels and the airport. I sat on a bench in a small, canal-side campo and watched as one barge after another dropped a small stack of goods and a landing on the piazza. Then out of the alleys and streets hand cart toting shopkeepers came to claim their stock. All very efficient and invisible to the tourist who doesn’t rise until 8 or 9 a.m. (like the girls).

Today was island day. We decided to make good use of our 3-day vaporetti passes and we set out to explore the other islands in the lagoon. First was Murano--famous for glass blowing. Apparently Venice has always been a leader in the art of glass. Some centuries ago, the factories (“fornaces” or furnaces) were all moved to Murano in an effort to guard their craft and keep potential copycats at bay. C and the girls poked in and out of a couple dozen shops looking for gifts and jewelry. Ironically though, and to Court’s disappointment, we could never find any glass blowers except one small little jewelry guy. Oh well. As I reminded her though, we do have Chihully and the Tacoma glass museum.

Next we caught the boat to Burano. This island is famous for its lace and colorfully painted houses -- kind of like Miami. The story goes that the fishermen of the island painted their houses bright, unique colors so they could see them from their boats out on the lagoon. We grabbed some lunch at a bar, shopped and had gelato before hopping yet another ferry to the wee island of Torcello.

Hemingway spent some time on Torcello drinking and bird hunting after WW II. The tiny island was once the lagoon’s biggest settlement, boasting more than 50,000 inhabitants and a basilica. But the harbor silted up and the Venetians passed them by. Today all that remains is a few buildings--the ancient basilica included. Consecrated in the 8th century, this church is home to some amazing mosaics.

We’re back at the apartment now, resting. With no internet access, I’ll have to post this one later. Tonight we’re going to picnic in the park in Sant Elena beat the heat.