Our original Thursday plans included the Venetian islands of Murano and Burano. However, with rain in the forecast, we knocked out our visit to Murano on Wednesday, which gave us some more flexibility today. We took advantage by sleeping in a bit, with Amanda and Noah taking their turn at the breakfast extravaganza a little before 10:00 a.m.
Even with the late start, we’d made it to Venice by 11:00, where we had about a mile of walking to get to the vaparetto station that takes travelers to Burano. We attempted to visit a chocolate shop that had a handwritten sign noting it was closed for the day, so instead satisfied our sweet tooth with a return to our favorite Gelateria.
Apparently, gelato is less popular at 11:00 a.m., as we arrived to the welcome sight of no line at the shop. Noah and I reverted to the flavors we first ordered, while Amanda tried their signature “Suso” flavor featuring caramel and toffee. We posed for a new set of photos and then set out to visit Venice’s narrowest street en route to the vaparetto station.
Calle Varisco, Venice’s narrowest street
While most travelers exited at Burano, we stayed on for one more stop to get to the island of Torcello, which was the birthplace of Venice with settlements dating back more than 1,500 years. The swampy island saw significant population drops beginning in the 14th century and now has a full-time population of around 20.
We nearly had the vaparetto to ourselves after most travelers exited in Burano.
While Torcello was once home to twelve Catholic parishes, we visited the only one that remains — that dates to the year 1008. A modest fee of 5 Euros allowed us to climb to the top of the bell tower to take in views of Torcello and the surrounding islands. Unlike the campanile at St. Mark’s, there was no elevator here.
View of the church and a handful of still-standing buildings on Torcello.
As an aside, unless you’re able to pair a trip to the restroom with a sit-down meal, it’s paid toilets in Venice. Torcello was no exception. They’ve generally been clean, which is good given the price tag of €1.50 per person.
We had lunch at Ristorante Locanda Cipriani, which was our most traditional, charming, and expensive dining experience so far in Italy. The menu was entirely in Italian, so I used the iPhone’s handy Translate app to take photos and get a rough translation of the main dishes. Noah and Amanda ordered a linguine while I opted for a seafood platter.
Our food was impressively presented and plated by the waitstaff at our table. Amanda and Noah thought the pasta was exquisite but preferred the sauces and flavors from the fast-food pasta place they ate the night before. I tried a smorgasbord of fried seafood including multiple baby octopi, squid, and shrimp, accompanied by tasty fried chips made from sweet potatoes and zucchini.
A selfie with our main courses (and Coke Zero in glass bottles.)
After lunch, we walked back to the vaporetto to ride a single stop to Burano, where we worked our way in and out of various shops selling glass (like Murano) and lace, which the island is most known for. The first stop was at an expensive lace shop, where we were guided through their different product offerings and saw multiple women handcrafting lace goods.
These colorful Murano glass candies looked like Jolly Ranchers.
Our favorite shop in Burano may have been the last one we visited, where two sisters were making glass creations inside a modest storefront brightly painted in orange. We purchased a few souvenirs there and snapped a few photos in the town’s colorful streets before walking through some rain to catch a ride back to Venice.
Our favorite, and final, glass shop visit in Burano.
On our way back to St. Mark’s we stopped at a buzzing store called Nino & Friends. We were roped in by their tasty pistachio and hazelnut chocolate samples and then Amanda was presented with a variety of salty treats in their section of truffle-centric spices and sauces. We left with a bag of goodies including a ‘magic’ truffle salt to enjoy when we return to Iowa.
Amanda and Noah opted to double up on pasta for the day with a return trip to Del Moro. They went with the same romano pasta they’d ordered the previous night, though instead of picnicking at a nearby church, they mostly ate it along our walk back to St. Mark’s. By 6:00, we were on the boat back to the hotel for our final night in Venice.
