More Venice

On our first full day of our Tauck tour we were first raced through the Basilica of St Mark. St Mark is the patron saint of Venice. He replaced St. Theodore who still appears on one of the two columns at the entrance to St Marks square. The other column has the winged lion which represents St Mark. Back to the Basilica, it is covered with mosaics, the illustrate the life if Christ. There are millions of gold leaf squares. In each the gold leaf is encased in glass.

The square was flooded again this morning and even the mosiac floors at the entrance to the basilica was covered. The chichi was at first the private chapel od the Doge but when Napoleon conquoree he opened it to the public. He also built the palace at the end of the square.

We were back at the hotel and prepared for our day on the islands of Burano and Murano. Burano is a fishing island where the famous lace is made. The wIves would wait for their husbands by making lace. They also painted their houses bright colors so that their husbands would be able to find the right home and wife when they came home. The village is charming, it isn't really a village, as it is a part of Venice but it has a village feel.

The lace is beautiful and quite expensive, despite that fact, I did feel that some members of my family needed a lace top. I can hardly wait to see them in them.

Murano is also a charming place. It is still home to the making of Murano glass and some is quite lovely and expensive. While I did feel somevhad to come home, I have to admit that lovely as some of it is and how incredible the artistry is, I was quite able to leave most of it there.

We were now water taxied to our ship. The La Boreal. Our tour is about half of the folk on the ship. We had a lifeboat exercise where we had to put on our life vests and head to our gathering point. Then off to dinner. The dinig room is large and was very noisy, on top of which they served lamb as the meat entry. Hopefully tomorrows dinner will be more to my liking.


Tomorrow Croatia!