Venice (5/10/08)

We woke up to absolutely gorgeous weather (which I heard was unusual for Venice) and mobs of people (not so unusual). We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast in our very tastefully decorated breakfast room in the hotel. Delicious chocolate filled croissants and yummy yogurt and cheese. After breakfast, we met Kristen and Kimberly and took the vaporetto over to Saint Mark's Square. If we thought the part of Venice we had been in was crowded, it was nothing compared to Saint Mark's Square. Posing for pictures was nearly impossible because you could almost guarantee that someone would walk in front of the camera just as you snapped the picture. There was a mob of pigeons circled around a few people with bread crumbs and it reminded me of some horror scene that would come out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds." I don't think that the pigeons in Europe are afraid of anything. It would probably take a gunshot to actually get them to fly away, (and even with that, I'm not so sure). While we were wandering around aimlessly, and man came up and offered us a free boat ride to the island of Milano to see the glass factory. We knew that there would be some spiel we would have to listen to in an attempt to get us to buy glass, but we were ready to avoid the vaporetto. The boat ride was wonderful. It was just the 5 of us and we didn't have to stop at all to get there. The boat took us right to the glass factory. It was extremely interesting to see how glass was made. (although I think the people that work there must lose pounds and pounds of weight because of how much the sweat in there. The furnace room was sweltering and I was almost ready for a break when we were ushered into their show room. Wow. I have never seen so many things made out of glass in my entire life. Glass chandeliers, vases, birds, flowers, even the railing to the stair case was made out of blown glass. The man showing us around tried to prove to us that the $12,000 glass and decanter set was really a good deal. We were unconvinced. He then tried to sell us some chandeliers and said that they would even ship to the US for free. (and they would deliver straight to our door). The only problems were the $5000+ price tags. He told Mrs. Sitler if she bought a certain chandelier by 4pm, he would give her a special deal of $4000. I don't think she was convinced either. Finally we were able to get away from his sales talks, I'm sure he was getting a little tired too. We walked around and found a place to eat lunch. I ordered a 4 cheese pizza which I regretted the moment I took a bite. There was one particular cheese on it that was like nothing I had ever tasted, (and that was not a good thing). I was thankful that mom and I had decided to order two different things and split them. She liked the pizza and I was thankful for the lasagna. After lunch, we walked around shopped. We found some cool shops with Murano glass beads and jewelry. It's actually amazing how many things can be made out of glass. We caught the vapporetto back to Venice and caught a bite to eat before walking to St. Mark's Square after dark. There were two cafes open with live music. A lot of classical and folk songs. In order to sit and listen to the music however, you have to order something. After an $8 cover charge per person, we fought back the chokes while looking just at the coffee and dessert menus. A cup of hot chocolate was $18+ and a cappuccino about $20. Dessert was at least $30 a serving. We decided to just stick with the hot chocolate and cappuccino and figured that we would order and not worry about the cost (how often does someone get to enjoy live music in St. Mark's Square beneath the starlight?). Almost right after we ordered, it started pouring rain. The musicians stopped playing and we were stuck there with no umbrellas or rain coats. After about a 5 minute downpour, it stopped raining. We kept waiting for the musicians to keep playing but we had to wait about 10 minutes. They would play 2 songs, and then take a 10 minute break. 2 songs, 10 minute break. It was more than slightly annoying since that was our main reason for coming and paying that much. It was a slight disappointment especially between the small showers of rain that kept occurring. Ah well. It was an experience I'll never forget whether or not for the reason that I had originally intended. The walk back seemed much longer and the conversation was scattered with many yawns. It had been a long day and we were tired.