neko's thinkbox

Tadaima! Perhaps a bit sooner than expected (started writing just three days after I posted my last entry), here’s Day 2 of neko’s travel log of his pilgrimage to Venice, with more pictures, and! a couple of videos for you to enjoy.

Before all else, although I correctly predicted that my last entry didn’t spawn many comments (of envy or amazement), I’m glad to see that so far, everyone who knows or watched ARIA wants to go to Venice (see the poll on the right). Keikaku doori (just as planned), Amano might think.

So, without further ado, let’s-a-go! As always, get yourself a Gelato or a Cappuccino while waiting for these 6.5 MB of thumbnails to be loaded ^^

Navigation Day 2: Saturday, June 12th

After another hot night (fortunately, I had that godly fan to cool me off), Saturday promised to be a very entertaining day: we planned to visit the islands of Murano and Burano.

I noticed that there was Pretty Cure on some Italian TV channel, I think it must have been Rai Due or so. They do have anime too! Same looks as always, but the dubs………………………. Gah. I already hate dubs, German, French, Portuguese… But I never heard Italian subs before. And soon after I did hear them for the first time, I muted the sound. Wonder if they’ll ever show ARIA…?

Anyway! After breakfast at the hotel, we departed once again with the Vaporetto to San Zaccaria, then walked north towards the Fondamenta Nuove, where we would take another Vaporetto to Murano. We could have just taken the Vapo from the Lido directly to Murano, but like this we saw another part of Venice at the same time. There are not many people around at 9 AM yet, so it’s great to walk through the alleys.

Throughout our wandering on the first day, I spotted a few supermarkets. They were pretty much hidden – actually, you wouldn’t expect anything inside all the many old houses without windows. But at a closer look, you’ll find many offices and stores there. For example, I knew there were Mc Donald’s restaurants scattered all over the city because of the many signs, but I just couldn’t spot them immediately. Heck, there was one McDo close to St Mark’s Square that I only at night, just as it closed… but I’ll get back to that late on.

Anyway, water in the supermarkets is indeed dead cheap – for 2 Euros I would have bought five 1.5L bottles of water… Elsewhere you’d get one bottle at most for that price. Also saw my favorite tea brand in the supermarket, Twinings (their Earl Grey is just too awesome), but since I had no means of boiling water at the hotel, I didn’t buy it. Bah, I digress.

So, Vaporetto.

Then Murano. Before arriving at the water bus station, we float along the island, and we could already discern the many many glass factories from afar.

I could not wait to see one from the inside – in the ARIA chapter I had read the night before, Akari, who had to transport Murano glass to Venice, was inside of the factory looking at the “Maestro” (as the master craftsman or glassblower is called). And soon we saw one: a few stores down the road from the station was an entrance to a store with a furnace, for visitors to witness a live demonstration of the making of those awesome glass objects. The Maestro (of course not our , har har) was making glass horses. I was really impressed with what speed and routine he made it… as if he pulled out a horse out of that glowing bulb of glass! …Despite the “NO PHOTOS – NO VIDEOS” signs all across that little store, I still couldn’t resist the temptation to take my camera and to record a video. Maybe I hid the camera (or my intention) pretty well, or the Maestro didn’t give a shit – either way, I wasn’t caught.

Impressive stuff isn’t it? I was literally amazed at that skilled craftsmanship, and even more, considering the thousands of glass objects in that store alone. Walking all across Murano, almost every second house in the main street was a store that sells glass. Whether they all produce it artisanally or not I don’t know, but it’s still astonishing that there is so much subsisting concurrence there (unless the Italian Mafia doesn’t strike there as well…).

Scattered across the island were some huge, colorful glass designs, one more impressive and beautiful than the other. A red-orange octopus, glittering dark blue bamboo sticks, a light blue “comet”…

Needless to say, it was a VERY hot and sunny day. My feet had still been hurting from those feet-killing sandals from the previous day, and not even my shoes could reduce the pain. Yet I had to bear it all in order to see as much as possible from Murano.

We walked all along the river, into a residential area at the top of the island, and we crossed a really idyllic place I just couldn’t resist taking a video of. Although the singing of the cicadas (or locusts or grasshoppers if you will) was pretty loud, I found it a very peaceful and quiet place.

After hours of sightseeing, we decided to leave Murano to go to Burano. But I could not leave Murano without at least one souvenir from there… I bought a glass cat, because I love cats (obviously), and because it reminded me a bit of President Hime. Very remotely. Not at all. But who cares T_T
Pictures taken from the terrace of my house a few moments ago, it has been raining all night, and the sky is still gray. Ugly weather…

Back to Venice. After a quick snack close to the water bus station and the light house (I had a Panini and a beer), we took the Vaporetto to Burano. It was much farther away, so the ride took a little longer. Arrived there, we immediately started walking towards the centre of the island (much to the discontent of my feet, who threatened to stop doing their job soon).

Well, Murano is a much smaller island, such that it didn’t take very long to entirely cross it – but boy, what an interesting and colorful island! I found it so beautiful and peaceful, I immediately fell in love with it. I would want to live there without hesitating.

I remembered I wanted to send postcards to some IRC friends (including Ruki, who also sent me a card from Japan later on), but I needed to buy stamps. So I went into a random tobacco store and asked stamps for Europe, US, Australia… and when I finished listing up the countries, the shopkeeper said: “No stamps”. D’oh! So hazukashii… My quest for stamps should last until the next day.

Anyway, it was late in the afternoon. We wanted to go to the Piazza San Marco at night to see that place with all the lights on, but we were pretty tired already so we took a double-deck ferry (a Motonavi, says Freedom, but still an ACTV service so we didn’t have to pay extra) back to the Lido to rest a bit. It did take one hour to reach the top of the Lido, and I almost fell asleep on board…
My feet were really unforgiving that day, and I just managed to limp back to the hotel. Arrived there, I noticed my front was burning. And it was pretty much burnt indeed… T_T Since I had passed the first day without a sunburn, I thought I was safe, but it turned out I wasn’t… The joke’s on me this time. With a wet towel on my front, I napped for a small hour.

Later in the evening we returned to St. Mark’s Square (SMS), and it was pretty much dark already.

If you looked closely at the pictures of the SMS from Day 1, you will have noticed the stage at the back of the square. And this night, there was a concert there, most likely China-related. Chinese dancers, Chinese instrument players, Chinese singers, etc etc…

Anyway, after a couple of photos and fiddling around with my camera to find the best shutter speed for a good photo, I admitted defeat to muz’s DSLR and declared that I was hungry. It was 11 PM already and I already suspected most restaurants to be closed. …Even McDonalds was closing as we arrived there… Left, right, restaurants closing all around, but we were lucky that there was one restaurant still open (nice tactic, they’re getting more customers at that time heh). Gnocchi with ragù (Bolognese sauce), delicious.

Back at the square, we got ourselves some gelato. (those are simply irresistibly good xD I usually took cherry, pistachio and some random flavors)

…muz shot some more pictures around, and I took a video of the concert.

After the concert ended, we went to the Piazzetta and in front of the Rialto bridge to take even more pictures.

I also took yet another video – especially since the Campanile bell was tolling again… it gives a really really great atmosphere, and everytime I watch that video I feel so nostalgic, I want to go back there already…

It must’ve been 1 AM when we decided to take the Vaporetto back to the Lido. The next day would already be the last one…

And that’s it for Day 2! This time there are less pictures within the post, but there are hundreds more in this album here.

More to follow on the last day, with not so great of a weather this time… Otanoshimi ni!

Let me know what you think of this so far!