Italy Travel Diaries: 48 Hours in Venice (Part 2)

Want to know more about the first day of our Venice city break? You can find Part 1 here!

The day dawns fine and sunny once more. Mr Fletche checks his weather app.  The weather is on the turn, and rain, clouds and thunderstorms are forecast for Florence.  Ah well, we’ve had a good run.  But let’s make the most of the sunshine today!

Exploring beyond the heart of Venice

Today we’re off beyond Venice and into the lagoon.  I’ve meticulously planned the route and know that the 4.1 waterbus goes to Murano.  The signs at the vaporetto stop are not entirely clear, and there are a lot of confused tourists clutching maps and comparing routes but there is a general consensus that the 4.1 does indeed go to Murano.  Until the boat pulls up and one unsure tourist asks the grumpy boat attendant if the boat goes to Murano, and he tells us all “no”.  Confusion ensues.  I’m game to get on anyway, and have one foot on the boat but Mr Fletche is stranded in the crowd beyond the grumpy boat attendant’s hastily erected barrier.  

Plan B. We get the 5.2 to Fondamente Nove where lo and behold, which boat is waiting to take us across to Murano?  Yes, the 4.1.  Clearly the grumpy boat attendant didn’t want a bunch of confused tourists on his boat.  He needs to seriously think about changing to a less customer-focused job.  Or improving his customer service skills.

We disembark at Murano where we are enthusiastically greeted by our Italian friends encouraging us into their factories/showrooms for a small charge. Yes, Murano is famous for its glassware, but it’s also famous for its pushy salesmen. We are cleverly shepherded into a courtyard marketplace almost without us being aware of it but whilst they are hassling our fellow tourists for the admission fee, we are sneaking out like kids playing truant from school. We’re free!

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Murano: The Island of Glass and Burano: Island of Pretty Coloured Buildings

We wander around the back streets for a while; suddenly the maze of houses and alleyways open up into a network of picturesque canals and bridges surrounded by glassware and souvenir shops. You can’t go to Murano without purchasing at least one piece of glassware; in true Fletche tradition we purchase a Murano glass Santa Claus bottle stopper to join our “Christmas around the World” collection. (Update.  The Murano Glass bottle stopper is no more after an incident involving trying to lodge it too far into a bottle of Prosecco over the festive period)

We stop for a coffee outside Al Soffiador on Calle Bressagio then make our way to the Faro vaporetto stop to catch the No 12 to continue our island tour.  There are a LOT of people waiting to make the 30 minute journey but the No 12 is more akin to a small ferry than the waterbuses we’ve been used to. We step off the boat at Burano and WOW. Burano is quite possibly the prettiest place I’ve ever seen. The rainbow coloured houses, striped curtains rippling in the gentle breeze, the flower boxes and cute flower-filled courtyards – every direction is like a scene from a picture book. 

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We purchase sandwiches and beer from Devil’s Pizza, find a patch of grass under a shady tree and sit among the locals for an al fresco lunch. We spend the afternoon wandering in and out of colourful alleyways, losing Mr Fletche as he wanders off – this is a photographers paradise but I doubt that even the best photographer can capture the breath-taking colours (Mr Fletche, there’s a challenge for you right there!).

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Getting Lost in Venice – and finding cheap Aperol Spritz

Eventually it’s time to leave Burano. We don’t have the time to visit Torcello; we’ll put that on the to-do list for next time.  We get a much-prized seat on the 45 minute journey back to Fondamente Nove.  We use a combination of water bus and walking to get back to the San Marco sestiere.  It’s time for an afternoon Spritz at Campo Santo Stefano.  Once you move away from the high tourist-traffic areas such as St Mark’s and Rialto there are so many other squares lined with bars, cafes and restaurants. You can peer into churches and see recitals. And Aperol Spritzes are cheaper.

We head back to our hotel; it’s the of our Venice city break so we don’t want to waste any more time than we have to so we have a quick freshen up and change before heading back out once more.  Another reason not to linger in the hotel too long is that the air conditioning is not working and there are workmen banging around next to and above our room.

It’s time to go and find all the little areas that we said we’d go back to tonight.  We cross Rialto, so far so good.  Everything else has moved. We keep on ending up at Grand Canal.  Venice has turned into some sort of labyrinth.  However, we do find potentially our best deal yet – 2,50 euro Spritz! Ok, so we don’t get a basket of snacks with these but for 2,50 euros who’s complaining? I have no idea what this place was called. Was it even an actual bar? Had we just stumbled into someone’s lounge? Anyway, we left a crisp 5,00 euro note behind and continued our quest to find food.  We turn a corner – and we’re back at the Grand Canal. Again.

Eventually we manage to shake off Grand Canal and find Campo Santa Margherita.  We dine at Ristorante Pier Dickens.  We share the pizza frutti di mare and a tuna salad; it’s my favourite meal so far in Venice, and yet it’s the cheapest. It’s amazing what happens when you wander slightly away from the tourist trail.

A final Venetian treat

I’ve managed to talk Mr Fletche into a final night treat. A drink on St Mark’s Square at Caffe Florian. We know it’s pricey. We know they’re going to charge us 6,00 euro just to sit down. But it’s a quintessential Venetian experience.  We order two glasses of prosecco and savour every tiny sip whilst listening to the orchestra.  Mr Fletche still insists that the orchestra at Quadri has a better set (as they run through their repertoire of Michael Jackson interpretations) but I love the classy elegance of what is purportedly the oldest café in Europe. This was a wonderful way to spend the final night of our Venice city break – a glass of bubbly with mio marito by my side.

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Arrivederci to Venezia

We wake up, sad that it is the final morning of our Venice city break. Still, we are moving onto pastures new so we have our final apricot-filled croissant, purchase the obligatory fridge magnet and pack up our suitcases once more.  The aircon is still on the blink, and we have to manoeuvre our suitcases around the ladder thoughtlessly positioned outside our room by the maintenance men dangling from a hatch in the roof.  It seems like just moments since we were dragging our suitcases up these narrow alleyways, arriving as Venice virgins.  Now, bewitched by the Venetian spell, we bid the city a presto.

Next stop: Florence!