Venice Touring

I am on the last leg of my European journey! I checked into the Villa Rosa On Saturday afternoon, delighted to see that I had a balcony room. I am joining a tour group for the last 15 days of my holiday and have booked into the hotel used by the tour group. The hotel is a walk or a Vaporetto (the canal equivalent of a bus) away from everything.

I arrived in Venice on Saturday and even though the tour doesn't start until tomorrow, I was able to meet up with the tour leader, Serena and tag along with the group which was just finishing their tour. We started with an orientation walk around Venice as we will have 2 days of free time here as the tour group switches from those doing the Lake District Tour to those doing Umbria, Rome and points south.

One way to cross a canal if there are no bridges near is to use a traghetto, which is a sort of gondola which provides a crossing service for .50 €. There are quite a few of these along the length of the canals, I guess it is a good alternative to building bridges and provides employment.

This is the Bridge of Sighs.

Don't I look like I was photoshopped into a picture postcard?

After we finished the orientation walk we all went to a bar for an aperitif. Our group leader, Serena, is in the green top.

Sunset over the canal and another postcard shot.

A group of 5 of us ladies took a sort of ferry boat called Vaporetto to the island of Murano, which is renowned for its glass factories and it's wonderful glass. I picked up a few pieces of glass jewelry and of all things, a Christmas ornament.

The island has all sorts of glass sculpture in the public spaces.

Stopping for coffee (ok, I had a beer) in preparation for a busy morning of shopping.

We next travelled to the island of Burano, which is known for its beautiful buildings and as a place to buy Venician lace.

The last activity of the day was a Gondola ride.

Tomorrow I will go to the Peggy Guggenheim museum and also climb the clock tower. One last day in Venice. We have our "Welcome Dinner" for the tour group tomorrow night. The previous group of 12 are finished. We will be a group of 5 for the Umbria trip. Three folks are continuing from the previous tour group and there are 2 of us newbies. It will be nice to have someone else worry about travel arrangements and logistics. The tour leader seems very nice. I have it easy on this last leg of my trip.