Ciao Bella!

On one of the days that Susannah stayed with us, we ventured to the islands of Venice. We took the train to Santa Lucia station that morning and then hopped on the vaporetto (water bus). The vaporetto first took us to Saint Mark's square by going around the south side of the island, giving us views of Venice that I had never seen before.

View of Southern side of the Venice "fish".

This is San Giorgio Maggiore, a little church-topped island across the way from Piazza San Marco.

We then made our way to the islands. The city of Venice is actually made up of 117 islands in Venetian lagoon. Susannah and I visited three of the most visited ones: San Michele, Murano, and Burano. Our first stop was San Michele, the cemetery island.

San Michele was a little... dead (excuse my bluntness). It is a beautiful island with some pretty gardens and churches, but that's about it. Apparently, Igor Stravinsky is buried here. Each plot is very well tended and almost all of them had flowers on them. Very pleasant. Sooz and I took a quick tour around and then hopped on the vaporetto to our next stop, Murano.

Graves on San Michele.

Chapel on San Michele.

Murano is famous for its factories that produce beautiful glass works. We went into a couple of shops and marveled at the beautiful glass vases, chandeliers, and figurines. We tried to find a factory that would do a glassblowing demonstration but no luck. We grabbed a quick lunch and then headed onto our next stop, Burano.

We got a little bit lost when we were looking for the glass factories. We somehow ended up in this weird shady food court thingy. But hey, they had a pizza place named after one of our favorite movies!

Murano's main drag.

A glass statue of a woman. It was artsy.

Burano is a quaint and quiet island known for its lace production. They have many stores throughout town that sell the beautiful, handmade lace. The cute, pastel colored houses also make Burano a pleasant place to visit. Sooz and I had a fun time walking around town and just taking pictures of every cute house and picturesque alley.

Lace shops in Burano.

One of the main canals through Burano.

Cute houses in Burano. All of the doorways had a sheet hung in front of it to provide privacy, but also allow the breeze to come in.

Sooz chillin' in the shade.

Is this not the cutest house you have ever seen?

Sooz and the leaning tower of Burano.

More cute houses.

We had a fun day exploring some of the islands of Venice. I think that it is worthwhile to visit Murano and Burano. San Michele-- maybe not so much, unless you really dig cemeteries. The only thing I was disappointed with on this day is how long it takes to get to each island. I didn't realize how far apart each island is. On the vaporetto it takes about 45 minutes to get from Saint Mark's square to Murano and then it takes about 40 minutes to get from Murano to Burano. So unfortunately, most of our time that day was spent on the boat, when I wish we could have spent more time on the islands. It was also extremely hot on the day that we went. I don't know, maybe it was just me and my pregnant self, but I am pretty sure I drank like 6 water bottles that day and just sweated it all out. And nope, there is no A/C on the vaporettos. For some relief you need to sit by one of the little open windows or snag a seat on the back of the boat. Other than those complaints, I had a lovely time on the Venice islands with my sweet sister!