We all flooded out of the train at the main train station in Rome, and the amount of people with suitcases made me a little concerned that the high speed train we needed to catch to Venice in about twenty minutes would be full. It would be another hour's wait to get on another. We frantically looked for a ticket booth, Chris commented on how at times like this, he felt like it was the Amazing Race. We did find out ticket booth after asking someone, purchased our tickets no problem, and then boarded our train with at least five minutes to spare.
The train ride back to Venice was pretty uneventful. We arrived in Venice, check our luggage, and bought a twelve hour water bus pass. We took the next water bus to Piazza San Marco, which is now so memorable and special to us. The water bus went out and around, not through the Grand Canal as we had thought. It was interesting and better this way in regards to seeing a different part of Venice. It wasn't so good that we had decided to get off earlier and find a pasta place Chris had seen so many good reviews for.
Forty-five minutes later we were disembarking at San Marcos. We walked past some artists, one that caught my eye, and pushed through the crowds, which were heavier than any day we had been there yet. We walked into the square where Chris had proposed but didn't linger. We were both hungry and wanted to find that pasta place. This time Chris had downloaded off line trip advisor maps (we had downloaded this for Rome the second day there and it was so helpful), we let the compass on the phone lead use through the narrow walkways. We found it without too much difficulty, which was impressive to me since it was at the dead end of a side alley.
The place was small and we had seen to not expect an eating area. It was packed and the windows were somewhat steamy from the amount of body heat inside and the cooking of the pasta. It was called Alfredo's Fresh Pasta to Go. Everything was in English, so it was definitely catering to American tourists, but I'd say most in there were not American. I don't think they were Italian either, but other Europeans groups. It took a while for us to put in our order because they were busy filling the orders of the previous six or so. I think we must have waited at least ten minutes to just order. While waiting even more people came in. There was almost no room to move.
After ordering we waited probably another ten minutes for our food, paid and got out of there. I really don't like hot crowded stuffy places (but then, who does?). Our pasta we given to us in nothing more than an open plastic bowl. I had ordered Venetian fusilli, Chris had the Penne Carbonara. We both liked it, and then shared bites with each other (we always like to order different things and then try the other's and share if we like). I liked his better - it was delicious. At first, he thought he liked mine better, but then decided they were just as good. So, we ate half and then switched.
At this point, I began to hear familiar music. I thought it was just coming fro the shops, even though it was Christmas must in English. After a few minutes of it following us where ever we went, I realized I was carrying the music - somehow my iPad had turned on. I tried to turn it off, but couldn't with it being jammed into my purse and my hands full with the pasta, walking down the streets. We were now in a hurry to try to find the station to catch the water boat to Murano and Burano. Eventually I was able to at least just turn the sound off.
It truly felt like a maze to get to the station. We were in a more remote - less touristy - area of Venice. We would go one way and hit a dead end and then have to turn around and try another route. If that was a dead end, we would try again or retrace our steps to a larger walkway and bridge. We finally found it (although who knows how direct of a route it took). It was now close to 3pm. We found the boat dock, I waited off the dock (I don't know how people sit and wait on the docks with them so rocky, it makes me seasick). The boat was very crowded and we squeezed on and it really was a fairly short ride to Murano, the famous island of glass blowing.
We got off boat and there wasn't much to show us where to go, but someone told us to go to the left for the factory showroom. We followed the tall wall, looked in a couple of areas that had some outlet showrooms but didn't go in. We found the factory a bit farther down and watched a free demonstration. The man first made a vase and then he made a horse, part of the time puffing on his cigarette unless he needed to blow in the glass. It is very amazing to watch how quickly and easily he shapes the glass. They explained the cooling process and then we were directed to the showroom to see products to buy. There were so many pretty glass objects like animals, vases, lights, cups, glasses, etc. I saw the pretty red Venetian glass like I had purchased last time I was in Venice.
One of our goals was to try to find champagne glasses we could use at our wedding. We found one that we both liked and could agree on (Chris likes simple, I tend to like more ornate, but I also like a simple elegance and know that in the long run, I will always appreciate the simple elegance). Because there was not a matching pair, we moved on. We looked in a few more shops, without luck. I asked a girl sitting at the counter if she knew of other shops to check. She knew English (as most Europeans seem to), although it was somewhat broken. She tried to tell us at first she could show us real artists working at their furnace and not just the ones that make a little horse for you (she clearly was referring to what we had just seen). We said no, we were just looking for some clear (because most were colored) champagne glasses for our wedding, and she said that there was nowhere else but they may have something in the storeroom.
She took us through and, cleared it with her boss, and showed us a few, but came up with nothing. She then said they could custom make it. I explained we didn't have time to do that. She was insistent though and asked her bosses to take us back to the furnace because they had a new line like we were looking for cooling. I asked how much, she said 180 Euro each with shipping. Chris and I had already agreed to about 30 a piece, which was a huge difference, so I knew that this was most likely a futile attempt. She was so insistent and I was curious so we followed her past past boxes, different colored glass shards, through several swinging plastic door/barriers, and into a very warm furnace where six or seven men were working. Chris and I stood there in awe somewhat of what we were getting to see. This was no show. These were the real people who probably lived here, just at a days work. They clearly knew what they were doing, and partners would work together in a rhythm of true experience. A man sat in the corner smoking a cigarette for his break. A nicely dressed, very preppy looking older man was standing watching and interacting some with the men. I think he may have also been a customer.
The girl had us walk through the workers, waiting for the moment we could walk by without disrupting, to take us to the cooling area. She took a wine glass out of there and showed it to us, asking if that is something we might like to have them do specially for us. She was moving it from hand to hand slowly and explained it was too hot to keep in her hand. After a few moments, I said I didn't think we would be able to do that with the cost. She wanted to know what price we had been thinking. I was embarrassed to tell her the price so much under what she was expecting, so I stumbled a bit with my words, hoping to get her away from demanding that answer. She was persistent though, as she had been all along, and so i finally told her so she wouldn't try to work out a deal with us for way more than we were wanted.
She said there was no way and that was that. She quickly walked us back through the series of swinging barriers and back out to the courtyard of the shop. She had basically told us that we wouldn't find anything else on the island anywhere near that price and most of it was from China. We thanked her, and I felt a little bad for wasting her time, but then we were the only two in the shop.
We walked into a few other shops, saw nothing, at least in a pair. We looked at the phone to see if there were other shops, but we hadn't seen much when we came in. We walked back to the dock and I saw some of the little cabins set up with goods, we walked over and looked it. That led us to another and another until we saw a whole row of shops lining either side of a main canal. We had found shops! We walked into a big one at the end that had some beautiful items and could tell with the displays they were more expensive. We found some we were interested in and asked about them, but those could not be sold individually. A nice stylishly dressed young man took us into the "back" room, was which this amazing room filled with wine, champagne glasses, tea sets of a multitude of colors covered the the gold and roses, demitasse sets, and the glass sets for alcohol (I don't know the proper name). There were also ornate chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
He did show us a few very nice champagne glasses, but out of our price range (much closer though at 50 euros each). We found a gold rimmed one that we both really liked and would have spent that money on, but his bosses wouldn't let him break those sets of 6. We thought and discussed the ones we had seen, and were tempted because the store was about to close, but we just didn't love them. We decided to take our chances and keep looking.
We walked in and out of several shops that had only one or two styles available to us. A few we liked and considered but wanted to keep shopping in case we found something better. One woman showed us the a paper on the wall that was basically the heraldry of the families that make Murano glass. She pointed out her family's, which was the shop we were in. The sun was setting as we crossed over the bridge to try a few last shops. We had one we thought we'd return to if there was no luck.
We walked into the first shop on that side and I saw some in the window that were nice. We walked in and saw it was a smaller shop. There were a lot of glasses and a lot of chandelier/lights, but very little other items. We picked out two glasses we liked but didn't see matching styles. We asked the price and if they had mates. She looked and did and also the price was 39 euro. We finally found one that was simply elegant that we both really liked. We purchased it and asked about going to Burano and if she thought there was time to make it tonight to the island that specialized in lace. She said she thought so, but the ferry was a forty minute ride and she prefers morning or afternoon to see all the vivid colors of the houses. She carefully wrapped and packaged our glasses since we told her it had to fly home in our luggage. We thanked her and left, discussing on our way out that timing just wasn't going to work for Burano since we still had to get back to the station and eat dinner and ride back before too late so Andrew could pick us up.
We hopped on the water bus and got off, this time just following everyone else so we were able to quickly get back to a more touristy areas without the seemingly dead end maze-like alleys. I had one more thing to find before we left - some lace masks that I thought were so pretty. We found them finally in one shop near the Rialto bridge. I checked the price to be able to check with the other shops. We walked a little farther and there was a cart that was just closing up, but I saw the masks and that there were several in neutral colors I was looking for. We quickly made a deal with the nice lady - probably near my age who let us use my credit card (that was the other thing, we were almost out of Euro and being at the end of our trip, we really didn't want to pull out more). Her husband came from another shop and brought the machine to run the card and she gave me a euro discount on each mask.
Chris needed to find one more gift, which we also did quickly on the bridge. We walked back to our square one last time where we got engaged, and then took the water bus back up the grand canal. Chris had found a pizza place for us to order our last pizza from that was very inexpensive but rated well. We stopped about half way up the canal and wandered again along a smaller canal. Once again we found ourselves in an area that was clearly home to native Italians. We liked these areas and I found it interested to look in the little 'mom and pop' shops. The way of life just seems so nice and relaxing, running a small business you lived near or over and meeting up with friends in the evening to relax over food and wine or just walking through the streets and window shopping. I know many of those people don't live there and running your own business is not easy, but you can see that the Italians just enjoy relationships, relaxing and life. They are not consumed by a hectic schedule and how much money one can make at the sacrifice of having a life.
We found the little pizza shop in the middle of a nice large square. We sat to eat it out in the piazza, but it was too hot and the cheese was sliding off, so we decided to let it cool, which should happen quickly in the high 30's/low 40's temperature. We got a little lost again and ended up in a completely different part that was newer and actually had cars and busses. Many people were getting on the busses to go home for the evening. The pizza box was getting much cooler on my hand, and although it had stayed warm for a long time, I knew we needed to eat it or else have cold pizza. We sat on the steps in front of a very new building next to some fancy motor boats in the canal just a few buildings down from the train station to finish our pizza.
Chris retrieved our luggage while I tried buying the train tickets. The machine would not accept my card twice because it wanted PIN numbers that I didn't have. I was getting frustrated and Chris had already shown up with the luggage. I was afraid we were going to miss our train out. Then, I realized that the other machine took cash. We bought our tickets, hustled onto the train, then I ran back out to validate the ticket, and sat a relaxed for just a few minutes before our train sped off toward Sacile.
I napped a little, I was pretty exhausted. The hour ride passed and I knew our stop should be there any minute. The train stopped, but as we looked out the windows we could not see a station sign anywhere. I saw a wall of painted birds, but no station. We tried to ask a lady, but she didn't know, or couldn't understand. I could see there was a platform next to us, but Chris thought the train had just randomly stopped and would be moving up to a station soon. This made sense to me since I could not see a station, but then I remembered we were at the back of the train. I started to move up cars to see if I could find a station. I saw it just as the doors closed and the train started to move. Then we both saw the sign for Sacile and that we had just missed our stop. Oops.
Chris texted Andrew and so we did get off at the next stop which was Pordenone (the town we walked around the day after Christmas). It wasn't too far from the house, just unfortunately the house was in the middle of Sacile and Pordenone. We looked to see if we could get back on train to Sacile to meet Andrew, where he was waiting for us, but the next train was not for an hour. So, gratefully Andrew came and picked us up. We were back from Rome and ready for our last full day in Italy.
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