Torcello, Burano, Murano

 I can tell I'm getting exhausted. I just want to list off the things we did today. We knew Anya needed to see the Doge's Palace so we took her there first thing this morning and dropped her off. We told her we'd be back by noon.

Robert and I headed for the historical Ca'macanna mask making laboratory. They have costumed tons of films with masks and hats, including Eyes Wide Shut. They even sport Tom Cruise's signature along with people like Leonardo Dicaprio.

The first thing we did was Robert told me to choose a mask or a couple of them and we would ship them home. I looked at everything a hundred times and we finally settled on a gold cat mask, a colorful fox mask, and a blue and purple and white crescent moon mask! All very ornate♡. Even with shipping, it was cheap!

Then we went back to get Anya but she needed food, so it was a while before we could get going. When we finally did go, we headed to Torcello first, by way of half a dozen long vaporetto rides. Here's some info about Torcello:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torcello

It's a fantastic representation of 7th century Roman architecture that has survived incredibly well. The mosaics inside the church were designed for the common man who could not read (especially the bible) and yet the priests wanted to scare them into behaving. 

So there's fire and brimstone at the bottom of the triptych on the wall so the heathens knew they had to do what the priests told them to do. Fun.

Once we looked around, we rode back to Burano and went to find some lace makers. Robert got some beautiful lace and I got a top for myself in lace and gauze in a sage green. So awesome. 

Then we went to Murano and ogled all the glass. The furnaces aren't going, due to the raised cost of the natural gas. Its impressive that Europe is thimbing their noses at Putin, considering it means they lose out on getting the gas they need. The Murano pieces Robert and I loved were just too expensive, running in the thousands. So we bought small trinkets and called it good. We loved the two lamps they had that were unique, special pieces, but $16,000 was just too much. Ah, well.

We finally rode back to our BnB in our neighborhood and cleaned up for dinner. We are now at Ba'ghetto, which is a Jewish Kosher restaurant. They don't do meat and milk together, plus everything is prepared a special way. I had lamb and potatoes, Robert had steak, and Anya had kebab with tabhouli and Tahini. They were all fantastic. But the olive oil they served with our bread was a thick, unsalted oil that tasted cold pressed. It was stellar.

Tomorrow it's on to Florence already!