Previous Day (A Crowded Day at Venice)
Destination: France & Italy
Duration: 15 Days 15 Nights (Sep 02~Sep 17, 2014)
Day 14: Island Hopping in Venice (Murano, Burano &
Torcello)
Today is a busy day for us as we have three islands to
visit in one day. One of the cons of visiting those islands was the travel time from San Zaccaria Station – it just takes forever. The fastest time of
course is by water taxi which cost a bomb thus we have no choice but to take
the slow way.
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| On the way to Murano |
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| It's a long long way - good for sightseeing i guess... |
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| Start Seeing Colorful Houses |
Our 1st destination was Murano and we took the 4.1 line water bus from San Zaccaria and stopped at the Murano Museo Station. The travel time lasted for around 1.5 hours but luckily we got a good seat behind the boat.
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| Almost there.. Look at this! The thousand bridges of Venice |
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| Finally Step on Murano - the Glass Island |
We visited the Glass Museum which housed lots of delicate
glass items. The miniature glass garden at the 1st floor really was
the highlight of the museum – it was just so detailed and so exquisitely made.
The museum itself was quite small as some part was under renovation thus we
continued on to Basilica di Santi Maria e Donato which was just beside the
museum.
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| The Glass Museum |
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| What to do on a Glass Island? Visit the Glass Museum of course! |
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| Nice huh? |
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| The Glass Rendition of Venetian Garden |
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| Is that a Snail?! |
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| They have Sculpture in Glass Museum too! |
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| At the Courtyard of Glass Museum with Bell Tower at the back... |
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| The Instrument to blow Glasses |
The Basilica had those gorgeous golden byzantine mosaics
which were partly being cleaned by workers. They were really putting a lot of
efforts to brush and polish the mosaics. There were also this beautiful glass
chandeliers and some sort of glass ‘well’ near the altar.
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| Here we are!!! In Front of the Bell Tower |
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| The Beautiful Mosaic in Basilica |
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| More Mosaic |
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| The Glass 'well' near the Altar - for holy water??? |
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| The Altar |
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| Glass Chandeliers in the Basilica |
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| Basilica and Bell Tower |
We then wandered into the shops along the river which
took us much time as everything was just so pretty! There were glass pendants, glass bracelets and glass everything! We then walked to Faro
Station to get on the waterbus line 12 to Burano.
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| Passing through Bridges to get to Faro Station |
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| Got Distracted by Glass Artwork halfway through |
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| Distracted by the View too! |
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| We are easily Distracted! |
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| You must admit this is exquisite, right! |
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| Lighthouse near Faro Station |
Our 1st impression of Burano? COLORFUL!!! It
was really dazzling with all those bright clashing colors which made gorgeous
pictures.
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| Something Colorful Awaiting us from afar... |
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| We were Stunned before we even set foot on Burano! |
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| Every Street looks gorgeous! |
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| Even a Random Small Lane looks Artistic! |
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| Houses along the small Canal... |
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| We were lost actually.. :p |
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| It's like a Maze! Too bad we are not Maze Runner! |
We had our lunch at Principe Ristorante Pizzeria and ordered their
Squid Ink Pasta, Aglio Olio, Tiramisu and House White Wine. We loved all of
that especially the Aglio olio until we literally dipped all the aglio olio oil
with bread. YUM YUM!!!
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| The Restaurant |
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| Securing an Outdoor Seat |
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| Bread Basket |
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| Tiramisu & House White Wine |
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| Squid Ink Pasta |
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| Aglio Olio |
We then continued to walk around the little island and
wondered at its marvel before reaching of Piazza Galuppi and found "la
Casa di Bepi Suà" after some struggle with Google Map – which could not be
trusted!!! Burano was definitely a gem among all the islands in Venice – my
favourite gem! =)
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| Let's take more pictures! |
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| This View is STUNNING!!! |
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| In Front of Piazza Galuppi |
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| Yet another Nice View with Sammy!!! |
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| A Bypasser actually asks us to sit down to take this picture. :p |
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| Even a Random Wall is Beautiful - did you notice the tower is leaning? |
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| Inside the Church |
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| The Leaning Tower of Burano |
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| Can't get enough of the View |
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| The Most Colorful House in Burano! |
With heavy heart, we parted with Burano to get on Line
9/12 waterbus to Torcello which totally contrasted Burano. Torcello was the
‘old town’ and was once a glorious city larger than Venice itself. However,
nothing much was left now except the gloriously mosaicked Byzantine church in
the middle.
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| Let's continue to our next destination! |
Once we got off the waterbus, we followed the coast along
a narrow canal before reaching Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s Bridge). According to
the legend, the devil would appear as a black cat every night on 24th
of December.
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| The Devil's Bridge which doesn't look sinister at all! |
We then reached the Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta and
the Martyrium of Santa Fosca. There was also an ancient marble seat in the
middle of the square which was supposed to be Throne of Attila, who was the
king of Huns.
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| Walking along the Canal |
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| One of the Towers in the Main Piazza |
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| In front of the Museum |
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| Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta |
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| Inside the Basilica |
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| Golden Wall |
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| The DOME |
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| Martyrium of Santa Fosca |
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| The Throne of Attila!!! |
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| Sammy wanna sit too! |
The famous bell tower was unfortunately under restoration
thus we skipped it. It was getting late by that time thus we had no choice but
to take the waterbus to get back to San Zaccaria.
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| See the Tower at the back? It's under Restoration! |
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| Lots of Greenery... |
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| Going back to the main island |
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| It's a long long ride |
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| A House in the middle of nowhere! |
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| Nothing much left of this house... |
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| Speed boat! |
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| Costa Hiding behind... |
We wanted to get to the mart at P.Roma Station to grab
some grocery as things in San Zaccaria and San Marco were extremely overpriced
thus this time we took the line 2 waterbus for its speed between San Zaccaria
and P.Roma.
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| At Piazza San Zaccaria |
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| Let's go for another Ride... |
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| San Marco Square and Doge's Palace |
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| Yet another Classic Building |
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| It's getting Dark |
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| More old Building... |
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| Another Church |
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| Dazzling in the Dark |
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| A Cruise or a Yacht? |
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| Rialto Bridge again! |
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| Main Canal at Night |
After grocery, we got back to the San Marco Square for some night pictures before getting some pizza at a nearby pizzeria near our hotel before calling it a night. Let’s just say the Pizza not as good as expected but the Limoncella was definitely a killer liquor! =P
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| Hard Rock at San Marco |
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| San Marco Square at Night |
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| San Marco Tower at Night |
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| Let's have some Pizza! |
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| Taste kind of meh... |
Next Day (Wandering in Venice & Overnight in Paris CDG)
