I can’t imagine a cooler breakfast than the one we had in Venice. We were sitting on a deck overlooking the Grand Canal eating chocolate croissants and bacon. I could’ve sat there all day. However, we still had more adventure ahead of us – part of the tour included a trip to the lagoon island of Murano which is famous for its glass-making. I was mostly looking forward to the trip over there. We cruised on a water taxi around to this small island and landed right in the port of the glass factory. We sat for 5-6 minutes watching them make a red glass (that means gold was mixed with the sand to get the red color). After that brief presentation, we were taken up to the store to buy something. They had all varieties of glass – chandeliers, glasses, vases, crystal, etc. They were running a special just for us that day (this is what all of the places have told us thus far). We refrained from buying anything, although there was a 1752 piece chandelier for 180,000 Euro that would’ve fit real well in our new addition.
We headed back to the hotel and had a few minutes to walk around before we headed off to the bus. We then started our very long ride back to Rome. Along the way, we stopped in the Apennines at a truck stop for some dinner and got a good picture of the Tuscan valley below.
We got back to Rome about 6:30, so we got situated in our room and then headed downtown to eat and see some sights. We ate at a place a few blocks from the Spanish Steps, but we got lost on our way to the Pantheon. We ended up going to Trevi Fountain instead where there had to have been 800 people in that small square looking at the cool fountain. We pushed our way down towards the front to sit a spell, but then developed a little claustrophobia (metaphorically) and decided to head back to the hotel. When we got there, we decided to go for a drink on the rooftop bar at the adjoining hotel. It was pretty cool to sit up on the 10th floor (11th in the US) and look out over most of Rome. There was a keyboardist doing some tunes and we sat at this expensive restaurant and had a little wine and cappuccino and made it out of there for only 10 Euros.
Eric's space 