I started the day with another hotel breakfast! Chocolate croissant, cereal, yogurt, orange juice - delicioso! Adam and I decided to have another splitsies kinda day since our interests differed. I really wanted to go to the Murano Glass Factory (on the island of Murano, at least one boat ride away) because I had heard from a few people that it was a must see! Adam wanted to check out St. Mark's square and stay more local. So I pulled on multiple layers (it's so cold out!) and went for the dock. I got a 36 hour ticket which means I have unlimited use of any boatride in the city for today and tomorrow, to get us back to shore. I knew if I got it I would have to make it worth my purchase, so going to Murano was a good start.
The boat took a few stops until it got to Murano and as soon as I got off, there were glass and jewelry shops everywhere. I don't think this island sells anything else! Besides food of course. I read in the Rick Steves book that many shops offer free demonstrations of glass blowing so I went into one of the first places I saw and asked. He didn't have any demonstrations in his shop but directed me to the factory itself. I had to pay 5 Euro to enter, and then I was allowed to go back into the glass blowing room. I saw "the master" (that's what they are called!) create a beautiful flower vase, and a statue of a small horse. He is so clearly trained in exactly what to do from the melting and the blowing and the decorating and the using of tools to help shape his piece. Another man who spoke English helped to explain what the master was doing. I thoroughly enjoyed the demonstration and then felt like I could peruse the selections in the shop. A young man, who I believe is from Brazil (but lives here now) followed me all around the store explaining to me what many items were or how they were made. I told him I'd be a while, because I really wanted to look around and see what was there. He followed me every step of the way. Maybe they do this with everybody because they want to make sure no one steals, or breaks anything, or maybe he works on commission! Totally possible. Anyway, he was really nice and helpful, and I picked out a few items to take back home. I spent the next 45 minutes or so, just walking around the island. More and more shops, more and more jewelry, tons of people going in and out of all the shops. I happened to see one more free demonstration of a man creating butterflies. It was in a very small shop just on the main street that I happened to see. He was sitting right there in the front of the store, and people were taking pictures and asking him questions. He made the same shape butterfly over and over again. I guess it makes it easier, cheaper, faster, and then items that are sold look more consistent with one another. I was fascinated, took a few pictures, but left anyway. I popped my head into a few other shops but at that point, it was enough looking. They all started to look the same.
I got to the boat dock to head back toward the hotel, figured out which boat to wait for, and after about 15 minutes, it arrived. I was planning to take it to the Piazzele Roma and transfer to boat #1 which goes through the entire Grand Canal, but I happened to pull out my map just in time. I was at the stop right before the synagogue! I hadn't made any plans to go see the synagogue here (just like I didn't really plan it elsewhere), but I thought - it must be a sign! I'm supposed to see it! So I got off at the next stop and found the Jewish Ghetto very easily. It is right by the boat stop about a block into the neighborhood. The Museo Ebraico and the Synagogue were both accessible via a tour (in English!) and it was going to start in 20 minutes. I saw a couple of signs for a Kosher Restaurant just nearby, and I thought it might be a good idea to keep the money in the religion. So instead of getting something at one of the bigger restaurants, I popped into the dairy side of a meat restaurant, that was more like a cafe, and got a sandwich! The best part about it was that I also got a hamentaschen cookie! It was so cool to see similar foods in a different country. They had a small market/bakery in the area as well.
I went back to the Museo to purchase my ticket for the tour, and although the lady who I spoke with wasn't so nice and friendly, she made for an excellent tour guide. I had no idea she'd be the one giving the tour; she must have been in a bad mood or just annoyed from having to sit behind a desk all that time. Her English was great, and I'm pretty sure she is Jewish based on some of the words she used during the tour, to help show 3 of the 5 synagogues in the Jewish Ghetto, and some of the ritual items and holidays she mentioned. There were only 6 of us on the tour and I couldn't tell (besides one man wearing a kippah) who was Jewish and not. I can't imagine so many people wanting a tour of something Jewish if they themselves are not, but here, the Jewish Ghetto has so much history, so it is definitely likely. I could not take any photos inside the synagogues but I was able to snap some shots of the outsides of them once the tour was over. I hopped back on the boat heading toward San Marco to come back to the hotel.
Adam was in the hotel room taking a nap (poor baby, so tired!) and I decided to head out to do some laundry. Last night we passed a place on our walk back to the hotel that is open until midnight every night, so I had planned on doing some laundry today - getting kind of desperate! Found the place again (through a roundabout way getting there, not really remembering the shortest route) and got change for the machines. Mission fairly successful. Only brought a few damp items back to the hotel to air-dry overnight.
We finally mustered up the energy to go out for another night in Venice in hopes of Mardi Gras not being a bust! Tonight I read there would be a boat show/parade at 11pm starting from the Rialto bridge going to San Marco and ending in the boat basin there, so we incorporated that into our evening plan, went to fine dinner wherever we could (ended up with some sandwiches and pizza) and checked out the Rialto Bridge area for bars one more time. So desperate to make our time here memorable for Mardi Gras! It turned out that there were a ton of people, but really, too many people, and not exactly fully coherent. So we did some people watching, bounced from pizza place to pizza place, attempted to watch the so-called boat show at 11pm from the Rialto Bridge, and when that was a bust, we quickly checked out San Marco before heading back to our hotel. Either we missed something entirely, or the description in the booklet I read earlier was not 100% true. Oh well, we are both reading until we fall asleep tonight.
Buonna notte Venice!
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