Our last Day in Venice Italy started out like the others by having breakfast at the hotel and getting ready for the day. We had planned on taking the water bus to Murano for a good part of the morning into early afternoon then seeing one of the sights that was close to our hotel and was actually across the canal from the train station.

As it turned out we probably should have seen that sight first because with all the things that happened this day we never did get there. Today was the only day in Venice that wasn't perfect as far as weather and as we left the hotel there was a slight drizzle coming down. We were headed to the train station which was about a 10 minute walk to one of four water bus stops in Venice that had boats going to Murano. When we got there we were surprised for find out the water bus service went on strike the night before and was running only limited service. We did find out there was one water bus stop on the north end of the island that was still running and taking people to Murano but that stop was about a 45 minute walk from our hotel now making it almost an hour there from where we were.

Though this was an inconvenience the walk turned out to be great and this was the day we discovered there were more than 400 churches in Venice. So on our walk to the other side of the Venice we picked out about 5 churches to see on our way back. Once we got to the water bus stop we found out we had missed the boat by about 5 minutes and the next one didn't leave for about 45 minutes.

One of the churches we wanted to see on our way back was only a half a block from the water bus stop so we decided to see it while we were waiting. This church like most in Venice doesn't look anything like a church from the outside, it looked like one of the other big building on the island but once inside it was one of the more beautiful in Venice with many statues and paintings to look at along with the wonderfully ornate ceilings that all the other churches had as well.

After we were finished in the church we headed back to the water bus stop and got on the boat and headed to Murano, it took about a half an hour to get there but was a nice ride. We wanted to see as much of the art glass that was made on Murano as we could and started at one end of the island and work our way to the other. At the first glass blowing factory we were put into a nice viewing area with a group of other people for a demonstration of glass blowing which was interesting, after which we were taken to a room with a lot of inexpensive souvenir blown glass.

This is where all the fun started, one of us really meaning not me made the mistake of saying how beautiful one of the chandeliers were and before I knew it we were whisked away to a privet viewing of about 100 different chandeliers. This wasn't bad in itself but the sales man and I really mean salesman asked us which ones we liked and started quoting prices and asking which one did we want to buy. I kept thinking what about us made this man think I had 10 to 15 thousand dollars burning a hole in my pocket for a chandelier.

I wanted to pretend to go to the bathroom and let the person responsible for all the high pressure from the sales man deal with the situation but I was too afraid that maybe I wouldn't see a 15 thousand dollar chandelier show up at the house but maybe a 6 to 8 thousand dollar one would. After we escaped from the salesman and went outside we kind of laughed about it a little on the way to the next glass blowing factory which was only about a block or so away.

Now if I didn't know any better I would say the glass factories were working together because as we got closer to the next factory I couldn't see anyone at the entrance to the shop but as we got within about 30 feet a man show up at the doorway and when we were just by the entrance we were invited in. The man asked if we wanted to see a demonstration, even though we saw one 45 minutes ago we said yes. This was a very different demonstration because we watched a man blow flower peddles for a flowered chandelier.

We said nothing but after we were finished watching we were again taken to see room after room of chandeliers. Each room had bigger and more expensive chandeliers then the room before but it wasn't long before the salesman was asking which one we wanted. After we were finely able to escape again we decided not to go into the next factory but to go into town to one of the galleries and just look at some art glass.

Upon entering the store I could see there were no chandeliers in sight and felt relieved but it wasn't long before a sales women showed up to take us to the upper level of the store to look at giant pieces of art glass. They weren't quite as expensive as the chandeliers but not by much. Since I wasn't doing any of the talking to the sales people and didn't feel like going through this again I made sure I had the check book and credit cards and went down stairs and waited outside the store. It seemed like I was outside waiting for hours when I was finely saw my better half coming out of the store but was greeted with the evil eye and I greeted them with big smile and a laugh.

This was kind of a funny experience but would recommend to others going to Murano to look at the glass to not say anything just look at the glass and nod your head and if you have to say anything just say nice. Since we successfully escaped another sales pitch we tried to get away from the big shops as quickly as possible and headed down the street to look at other kinds of shops.

After looking around for a few hours we found a place for a late lunch and headed for the water bus stop. It was now about 4pm so by the time we got back to Venice it would end up being almost 5. We slowly made our way back to our hotel looking at shops and all the churches we chose to see on our way to Murano. I was amazed at how every church we saw was so beautifully painted and wondered if all the over 400 churches in Venice were like the ones we saw.

By the time we got back to our hotel it was about 6:30. We decided since we were leaving on the 8am train to Rome the next morning that we had better have dinner and get our things in order for the next morning and call it a night. After spending 3 days in Venice it is hard to believe most people only spend a day here and I highly recommend if you have a long vacation planned to spend at least 3 days in Venice.

To put yourself into this story you only need to start planning your trip to Italy.

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