Today we head to the ship around 2:00 so I will try to post this this morning. I seem to be in Internet limbo, so no guarantees. My phone is only working on random Italian networks — and not Vodaphone which is the one I have — and the hotel’s system was rebooted at our request, to no avail. I feel like I am lost in the wilderness.

Yesterday was mostly hot. Venice is having a heat wave and with all the humidity, it’s kind of incapacitating for a fragile flower like me. 🌸

We got up at a reasonable hour and had the great breakfast buffet at the hotel. We sat outside in the garden — it was still cool in the shade and the scent of jasmine made the perfectly ripe fruit taste even sweeter.

We changed rooms at the hotel to a genuine junior suite. It looks like a bordello, or a least what I imagine a bordello looks like. Very red and plush and antiquey, but a least we lost the gold bath.

The plan was to head to lunch on Burano by way of Murano. Free water taxi courtesy of the glass factory arranged by the desk, and they warned us there would be pressure to buy but we could ignore it. Hah!

The water taxi over was delightful and it was tons of fun watching these heat-flushed Italian men make glass. I could have watched all day except that if it was hot outside the room it was broiling in there with the ovens that keep the glass molten.

I have to say, the saleswoman at the shop was a pro. She could see by an eyebrow twitch if I liked something. I was trying desperately for a poker face but coming up empty. She caught a couple of wide-eyed looks and deep breaths and read me like a book.

We went in thinking we would spend some minor money on a bowl or vase and ended up with the vase, but also six shot glasses, a round abstract sunset with what they promise is a cat-proof stand, and a really significant piece of art: pink water lilies on a background of blue water. Essentially it is a mosaic of bits of colored glass layered between rounds of clear glass. It’s really stunning, but totally an impulse purchase and it left me feeling simultaneously like a happy camper and the world’s easiest mark.

I am impervious to aggressive car salesmen — hadn’t realized I was quite so easily played by a tiny Italian. I blame my weakened state and dodgy health.

 

The word must have gone out that there were suckers a foot because our water taxi landing in Burano was met by a young woman who works for the lace shop that our hotel recommends. She walked us to our restaurant and came to pick us up after and take us to her shop. I was more resolute this time. Bought a table runner and that was that.

Burano is a tiny island known for its lace and its fishing. The houses are every color you can imagine — they told us it was because the fishermen were away from home so long that they couldn’t remember where they lived without the color cue. I prefer to believe that.

 

Lunch on the sidewalk was lovely, but I was too hot and ill-feeling to eat anything besides my comfort standby, spaghetti marinara. Jerry did it right with a seafood spaghetti dish that was gorgeous and delicious.

The rest of the day we spent being hot, until the water bus picked us up and deposited us in front of our hotel.

The air conditioning as we entered felt like a holy blessing.  We cancelled our dinner plans and settled for tourist pizza and a stroll around Piazza San Marco and home to the bordello.

 

Lovely breakfast in the garden this morning. The well-behaved birds wait until you have finished before attacking your plate. Need to train our cats to the same standard.

Packing up and and heading out. We can board the Encore at 2:00.