Kerry in Venice Last Night! Nov. 22, 2005

TODAY I HAD THE
MOST WONDERFUL DAY!

I'm at my hotel in Venice and this has to be super fast because I only paid €5 for 30 minutes on the internet . . .

First, I asked the hotel to pack me a breakfast for tomorrow, because I have to leave early, and they agreed!

Second, instead of taking the vaporetto down the Grand Canal, I decided to brave the little narrow streets and try not to get lost. There are SO many bridges across the little canals, all of them with steps up and steps back down again, but there are only 3 big ones across the Grand Canal. I found a place to get a quick gondola ride across for 50 cents. I am so proud of myself, because I can't afford the usual €60 for a luxurious sit-down regular gondola ride. Almost no tourists know about this. You can tell the gondola in the picture is a public ferry because the people are standing up. If it's an expensive one, they sit on luxurious seats.

So after the crossing I kept winding my way to St. Mark's Square, and I found the tourist info place I'd looked for yesterday. I asked about a big poster, which all they had was one with lots of small images, but guess what! The photographer of the poster was right there and I got to meet him! I told him he had a good eye.

Then I went for a tour of the Doge's Palace. The Doge was kind of like an elected king that had unbelievable power over Venice's empire. Venice ruled the sea, in fact was called "The Bride of the Sea," and every year the Doge threw a jeweled ring into the sea in a big ceremony. Anyway, the palace tour was very interesting, with various lavish courtrooms, to say nothing of lots of paintings and ceilings done by Tintoretto. One room had a ceiling of pure gold. I also got to go over the Bridge of Sighs into the prison, which which most tourists never see.

Then I popped back into ST. Mark's Cathedral for a few minutes, because I knew they turn the lights on for 1 hour from 11:30 - 12:30. Wow! All the gold in the glass mosaics lights up and its not like any other church you ever saw. There are five golden domes in the ceiling. I also went upstairs to a little museum and you can get out on the roof and see the 1000-year old bronze horses and look out all over the square.

My plan for the afternoon was to go out to the island of Murano, which has specialized in glass blowing for 800 years. I got on a boat with 100 ten-year-olds on a field trip, and felt right at home. They took me to a free glass-blowing demo with them. I wandered all over Murano, and found several other glass factories, but all of them are so expensive I did not buy anything, and I love glass. Oh, well. I got to my next boat dock just in time to catch up with the kids again!

We took the boat together to Burano, an outlying island famous for hand-made lace. The men fish, and the women make lace. It's also famous for it's brightly-colored buildings. It also has a leaning tower, tall and skinny with a pointy top. I really enjoyed it because I went into several shops and learned about lace from the shop ladies. I bought the silk tablecloth in the picture that was hand embroidered by the lady and her mother. When I walked in, the mom was sitting in a chair in the middle of the shop, making lace while she waits for customers. I had quite a nice chat with the daughter, who is friendly and pretty and 36 years old. She said her grandmother made lace, and before that her great-grandmothers, so far back no one knows when it started.

As I left the island, the sun was setting behind their own leaning tower, and it was magical. I found a faster boat back to Venice, thank heavens! I hunted my way back through the little narrow streets, no wider than alleys really, got lost again, took another gondola crossing the Grand Canal, found a night market and the fish market near the Rialto Bridge, and finally hopped the vaporetto boat home.

Now I'm rushing off to the opera. I bought a ticket from a girl in period costume this morning. It's in quite a grand old 16th century building with great acoustics. The opera is in Italian, but I already am familiar with it. It's Don Pasquale. Before the performance, there will be an English-speaking tour of the art and architecture and history of the building.

Bye, my time is up and I'd better send this or the computer will turn off and it will be just too bad!

I HAVE HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME!

Tomorrow I will be back home in normal, wealthy, wonderful, mountainous Utah, but I have to keep coming back to Europe. There are so many amazing things to see here! You should all come with me!

Love,
Mom