Italy
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Murano, Burano and Torcello
We bought the excursion tickets from our reception hotel and later we found out we could have just taken a bus-boat, but well, here we go to the islands! The first island is Murano, the island of glass, well has a glass fabric. There is a little demonstration on how it is all done and then we are taken to a glass shop. I was disappointed because we didn’t get to walk around the island, so I don’t really know if there is much to see. As the boat approaches the second island, Burano, my eyes must have looked like a cartoon – wide open! The island is so colorful!…
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Venice, a ride on the Gondola
My parents don’t speak English… but when it comes to negotiate the prices my mum speaks the international language… the body language! And she just walks away… we look at each other, we know what that means – we follow her. 100 euros for a 20 minutes Gondola ride is a “let’s esturpate this tourists” bit too expensive. So my mum counts slowly 1…2…3! And we hear “Senhora!” The man nearly running after us… He says “Eighty?” I translate to my mum… “Oitenta.” My mum looks at him pretending to consider, pretends to hesitate and say “Okay”. – She is the best!!! That’s the price she wanted to pay from the beginning!…
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Venice in a Postcard
My father cleans the tears after hugging my mum once again, and he turns to me and my sister with a big smile. I haven’t seen him in over 6 months: he was with his work, the Navy, doing the NATO. He opens an envelope with a collection of postcards from the places he has been: “…and this one was my favorite city: Venice, in Italy”. A little boat is reflected in the water, a man stands at the rear end of the boat holding a pad, he wears a hat with a red ribbon and a stripped jumper, very elegant, I thought. “In this city, the roads are rivers…
