David's Diary: Friday, August 23, 2002

Venice: Basilica San Marco and Murano

At the Sant Elena Yacht Club we are moored next to the sailboat Miss Rhodesia. Her owners, Peter and Laurie Rigby have their six-year old grandson Charlie onboard. Charlie has been with them for a month and Allen is the first person his own age that he's seen. Allen and Charlie quickly became friends and they start today with a war game on the main table onboard Dragonsinger.

Detail from Basilica San Marco

We offer to take Charlie with us for the day and his Grandparents agree. We are soon back on the Vaporetti and we ride it to Piazza San Marco. Today the line-up to get into Basilica San Marco is much shorter than yesterday. We line up while Charlie, Kevin, Allen, and Jocelyn all take turns to feed the pigeons in the square. We are soon inside the church. The boys take a quick visit while Jocelyn and I liger and go up to the alter where we view the jewel encrusted decorations.

Approaching Sant Elena

We then walked through the streets of Venice, crossing the island to take a Vaporetti to the island of Murano. Murano is the center of glass making in Venice. Glass used to be blown on the island of Venice, but fears of fires forced the furnaces to Murano in the 13th century. We have some lunch, explore the canal, and visit two shops where we get to see the glass blown in front of our eyes. It is fascinating to see the skill of the artisans as they quickly mould the glass into bottles, dolphins, or horses.

We returned to Sant Elena by going around the western end of Venice. This gives us a different view of the city and one that few tourists get a chance to see. As we approach Sant Elena we appreciate the large park which borders the waterfront. Most of Venice is so crowded that it is hard to believe that such a large park exists. The park even has play areas and the kids have been playing football there.