Lovely Venice

The ACTV
is like Paris' Le Metro or the London Underground, in that Venice has zones for which you buy tickets.

Here we see ACTV boats taking passengers through Basino San Marco in Venice, past the old Customs House toward St. Mark's Square. Among myriad other points of interest in the Square is the Caffe Florian, which opened on 29 December 1720. Venice is an old city. The Promenade of Riva Degli Schiavoni, an area where many fine hotels now occupy former palaces, is a prime location to catch a gondola. It is near the Palace of the Doge, and just a few minutes from St. Mark's Square.

The Symbol of Venice Gondolas are the prima donas of romance.
They are beautiful. They are magnificent. They are, compared to the other forms of transportation, really, really expensive. Now, of course, the Euro is used in Italy.
But when the Lira was in use last year, there was an official rate of 70,000 Lira for an 'hour' of 50 minutes, which went up to 90,000 Lira after 8 pm. Gondoliers were known to request an even higher rate for rides of less than an 'hour'.

This is in stark contrast to the extremely reasonable rates of the vaporetti and motoscafi of about 60,000 Lira for a 7-day tourist ticket with unlimited rides.

Sure it is. 90,000 Lira was about 42 US dollars... about 45 Euros today. The cost of a carriage ride in downtown Memphis is about 60 US dollars an hour.
Let's go to Venice.

Or let's go to Morano and see the famous Morano glassware being handcrafted.
Morano is one of several islands off Venice proper. It takes maybe 10 minutes to get there from the entrance to St. Mark's Square

You have an option to hiring a boat for the ride at a reasonable rate. If you don't mind being constantly 'encouraged' to purchase lots of glassware, you may accept a free boat ride to a specific glass-factory. But since the factories give free tours whether you take their boat or not, you may find this gratis ride costing you more than it's worth in additional purchases.

Glassblowing is primarily on Morano because in 1291, the Venetian Republic decided glassworks represented a fire danger to the mostly wooden buildings of Venice, and ordered the glassworks to relocate to Morano. The industry thrived there, and in time the Morano artisans were granted high privlidges like the right to wear swords, and were allowed to marry into Venice's top class families.

That may seem a bit extreme, but there was good reason. They were the only glass-crafters in Europe with the knowledge of how to make a mirror. They also had a virtual monopoly on quality glass techniques such as smalto enameled glass, aventurine glass with threads of gold, millefiori multicolored glass, and high quality costume jewelry made of glass. This made them invaluable to the Venetian State, who made it very dangerous for glassworkers to leave the country. They risked a visit by the Secret Police to assasinate them or cut off their hands.

Today the risks of glassblowing on Morano are relegated primarily to the Marketing Department. Some very fine and some very mediocre glass is produced, but the glassblowing techniques are very interesting in any event, and are a treat to see.
The Museo Vetrario on the Palazzo Giustinian in central Morano is a glass collector's dream, with pieces dating from the time of the Pharohs in Egypt.

And now it is time to see Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.

Or if you would like to look into making travel plans in Europe, try one of these Europe train travel links.

Eurail Pass: The best way to get around Europe

Europass®: travel throughout France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland

Visit our Europe Travel webstore featuring Love To Travel gear for your European Vacation, and while you are on the net, check out
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Euro-Rail.org    VacationInEurope.com    Europe-Train.org    Eurostar-TGV.com    AirfaresToEurope.com    TravelEurope.biz   

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