Venice - Torcello

 

Torcello, the last of the Islands that we visited. Sadly we only had 45 minutes on the Island, which was just enough time to walk into the centre, have a quick look round the Cathedral and get back to the boat.

There are less than 10 people living on the Island now, but in its years of importance its population was estimated to be between 20,000 - 30,000. The population was decimated by the Black Death during Medieval times, and has declined ever since.

The island is very beautiful, we all would have liked to spend more time there.

The Devil Bridge, so called because there are no hand rails. I didn't venture up there, but Alice and Joe did. It is wider than they thought it would be.

Local buildings, looking lovely in the sunshine :)

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, originally founded in 639. It has many beautiful mosaics, including an amazing mosaic of The Last Judgement. Sadly we were not allowed to take photos in the Basilica. 

The remains of the Narthex or porch

It was a shame that we didn't get longer on the island, there were more buildings in the Basilica area which would have been lovely to look round. But we were pleased that we had seen the island, albeit very briefly.

Venice - Burano

Beautiful Burano, the island of colourful houses and lace.

We were lucky enough to get a seat outside on the boat again for the journey to Burano. This ruined building is one of the first things you see as you approach the Island. I think it is the remains of a Religious Centre.

Oh look, some of the famous coloured houses :)

Burano is a beautiful, peaceful place, which we all fell in love with :)

Arriving at the Island we passed many beautiful colourful houses, the houses are supposedly painted in bright colours to help the fishermen find their way home when the fog is bad on the Lagoon.

Yes, the church tower really does lean that much :) 

So pretty everywhere you look :)

We walked along the canal side just enjoying seeing all the colourful sights, and also looking for somewhere nice to have lunch. We found a beautiful restaurant right beside the canal and enjoyed a really lovely lunch.

Lovely houses lining the canals

One reason I was interested in Burano was the lace. Being a lace maker myself I really wanted to see some Burano Lace. Above are some examples of lace made on Burano, I make bobbin lace, Burano Lace is needle made lace, different from bobbin lace, just as beautiful, and very time consuming to make. 

Looking across the canal towards the Lagoon :) 

More lovely colourful houses as we leave Burano to travel to Torcello, the last and smallest island we visited.

Venice - Murano

Murano - the first of the Venetian Islands that we visited on the same day.

We booked an organized trip for the Islands, which proved to be a really good idea. We all gathered at a meeting point on the Grand Canal, from there we walked to where our boat was moored and set off across the Lagoon. It took about 30 minutes to get to the Island.

Murano is known as the Glass Island, and the glass produced there is just beautiful. We were treated to this glass blowing demonstration when we left the boat. I had seen glass blowing before but Alice and Joe had not. It is fascinating watching a Master Glass Blower at work. In the photo above the Glassblower is blowing the body of the vase shown below.

The finished vase above, and a rearing horse which the glass blower made in literally 90 seconds! That is what you call skill. We all very much enjoyed the display and the visit to the Glass Factory afterwards :)

We then made our way to the main canal, and browsed the lovely shops.

We didn't have a lot of time before we re-joined the boat, but really enjoyed the stroll along the canal :)

As you can see the weather was beautiful :)

It is lovely seeing boats, not cars!

We wandered through the square, then made our way back to the boat. 

As we left Murano Harbour we saw this lovely lighthouse.

A few more views of Murano, taken from the boat. We managed to get a seat outside on the upper deck of the boat for this part of the journey.

Leaving Murano behind us, we were off to Burano next :) 

Venice - meanderings

As mentioned in the last blog, we decided to just wander around and see what we could find. We found a lot of Canals, but they are so pretty we all took lots of photos :)

I have no idea where any of these canals are, we just crossed bridges and went where we felt like!

We didn't go on a Gondola but we saw plenty of them :)

This one has a canal name, the building on the right turned out to be the Opera House, La Gran Teatro La Fenice.

The Gran Teatro La Fenice from the front. This is a world famous Opera House, we didn't go inside but there are plenty of photos of the interior on the internet. 

This lovely sign was round the back of the building. La Fenice means The Phoenix. The sign looks very old but that might not be true as the building was destroyed by fire in 1996 for the third time in its history, leaving only the exterior walls (and this sign?)  intact. The Teatro was rebuilt and re-opened in 2004.

This is a lovely Hotel near to the Teatro, my daughter spent a night here after my son and I flew home, as she stayed in Italy visiting friends.

Lovely canals and amazing buildings.

Pretty bridges everywhere too.

Love the Gondola's :)

We finally found ourselves back in St Mark's Square, It was a shame that the front of The Basilica was covered, but I am sure the repairs being done were very necessary.

The four horses captured from Constantinople in 1204. These horses are actually replicas, but we had the chance to see the originals later in the week. More about them in a later blog :)

Everywhere you turned there were opportunities for amazing photos :)

We didn't see many cats, but this one lives in a Stationery shop near where we were staying.

Beautiful buildings.

The bridge in this photo is the famous Bridge of Sighs, the building on the right is the Doge's Palace. We visited the palace on our last day, more of that in a later blog.

We had a lovely time just wandering round the Calli's 

Our lovely daughter tracked down and booked a boat trip to the Islands for the following day, the next blogs will be about them :)