Today was our first full day in Venice and our first full day with Genny, and it was fabulous. After staying up late last night listening to Genny's stories from the first 2 months of her travels in Europe, we got a bit of a later start to the day today. With it being Saturday, many of the little squares were full of vendors selling antiques and other such trinkets. The extra people in the squares made the tiny streets of Venice even more difficult to navigate.

Having finally navigated our way through the city, we hopped on a vaperetto (the boats that make up Venice's transit system) and headed to the island of Murano, which is famous for its glass blowing. We watched as the Murano glass blower quickly made a glass vase and a glass horse. We then parrused the gallery, taking in all of the different blown glass, from little dolphin figures to large glass centerpieces. We spent the rest of the morning walking from little glass store to little glass store, before asking a local for his suggestion of the best place for lunch. Based on his recommendation we found a tiny restaurant off of the main streets of Murano and had wine, spaghetti, bacalhau and Italian cookies.

Having wandered into as many glass stores and we could handle, we hopped on another vaperetto and took off to Burano, the other little island, this one being famous for its lace and vibrant coloured houses. All four of us where amazed at the look of this island, vibrant and quaint all at the same time. Cameras and wallets in hand we explored the city, buying small souvenirs througout the city. Exhausted from all the shopping (yes it is exhausting), we sat at a cafe and grabbed some cappucinos to refresh. Having had a sufficient amount of caffiene, we set out again, exploring the little shops. Although we were not on the island of Venice, we still managed to get lost a few times.

Just as the sun was starting to set we grabbed all of our bags and headed back to Venice. Walking back through the narrow streets we found a small store with large caskets of wine. For only 4 Euros we purchased 2L of local wine.

After enjoying some wine at the apartment we went out for dinner at a local Venitian restaurant, then headed to a cute wine bar near our apartment. Another enjoyable day in Europe....