May 19

end of the day
back street with laundry
S. Ellena park
lizard
S. Ellena park
glass making
Ponte di Rialto
San Marco
napping nusrling


Today was another busy day. We got up early and spent the day in Venice, about an hour’s bus ride from here. We got our fill of riding boats; Owen liked riding outside on the public transport boats, but the seats were hard to get. Owen took a nap as we took our first boat ride of the day. We spent some time walking around near Piazza San Marco – (briefly) in the Doge’s Palace, outside the Basilica, through the narrow streets with lots of shops up to the Ponte di Rialto. After lunch, we followed the map to the location marked #9 to find a public bathroom instead of the glass museum – oops, there were different colors of numbers. So, we caught a boat out to Murano, the island with the furnaces and Museo del Vetro where we saw lots of lovely “breakable” (one of Owen’s favorite words even before today) things, enjoyed a glass making demonstration, and bought a few items. Owen got a second nap on the ride back from Murano. We got off east of San Marco, and walked through a series of lovely parks along the water as Owen finished his second nap. When he woke up, he enjoyed the freedom of running around and playing at a playground in one of them. He especially liked playing in the drinking water fountain that ran continuously. Looking for dinner, we wandered through quiet, residential streets where everyone’s laundry was hanging out to dry. Owen made friends with some young girls from Chicago at dinner and kept wanting to go back “to see the ladies.” On our way back to the bus depot, we spotted a pirate ship which was quite exciting.
Tomorrow, we plan to have a much quieter day – waking up when we’ve slept enough, doing some laundry, looking for an internet cafe to check email and upload this log, and maybe going into Padua (a 20 minute bus ride) to the vegetable market.