Canals and glass blowing

Our whole purpose in stopping in Zurich was to take the scenic train through the Alps down to Italy.  It was worth it.  The Alps were gorgeous and imposing and really cool to ride through.  We took quite a few videos but no pictures (too much glare through the window).

In Venice we met up with Andy's parents who took a vacation to Italy in order to meet us on our trip. They bought a semi preplanned trip, with hotels, train, and half day walking tours of the cities set up already.  After checking into our accommodation and dropping off bags, we all wandered around Venice until we found a cute little dinner place with outdoor seating.  We all had variations of pasta dishes and then called it a night.

In the morning Jane and Bob went on their walking tour while Andy and I booked our hostels for Florence and Rome, then we conducted our own walking tour of Venice without a guide.  For lunch we all met up again and, at the recommendation of Jane and Bob's travel agent, ate lunch at Da Mamo (formerly known as Bora Bora).  It was excellent.  I had gnocchi with scallops and Andy had ravioli in a saffron sauce.  After dinner we each received a complementary chocolate dessert and a tiny chocolate cup filled with a melon spirit.

After wandering around Venice a little more, we caught a water taxi to Murano to see glass blowing.  There is a glass blowing factory that hosts free demonstrations of glass blowing.  First the glass blower makes a vase, showing one style of glass blowing where he actually blows into the glass using a large tube to form the glass.  The second technique was pulling the glass with tongs to make a horse.  It took him around 2 minutes to transform a ball of molten glass to a horse.  Just really amazing to watch.

For dinner we all made sandwiches at our hostel and then headed to Jane and Bob's hotel to hang out on the rooftop bar.  All in all a good day in Venice.