Today we took the boat to the island of Murano, with its glassworks.

After some initial aimless wandering, we picked one of the workshops to visit. Wave was a wonderful place.

They do offer tours, but there was also the option of just hanging around in one corner of the workshop and watching the glassblowers at their work. This was far more interesting than a more formal tour would have been. It was fascinating to see how all the different steps of manipulating the blob of glass led to the final product. Several times we thought we knew what effect a step would have – and then they did something to twist it to something completely unexpected.

Another amazing workshop displayed seaweed glass sculptures by Davide Penso. If I was rich enough to have more rooms in my house than I knew what to do with, I wouldn’t mind having something like this in my home.

That’s not going to happen, but we did want to bring some small glass item home with us from Murano. There was a lot of choice, but at the same time many of the shops seemed to sell copies of the same kind of things, with less variety than I had expected. I guess people come here with specific expectations when it comes to design and style.

Aside from the glassworks, Murano seemed more residential and everyday than the main island of Venice.

Boats everywhere, still, of course, used like cars and vans would be in any other city – such as for parcel delivery.

After a lovely lunch at restaurant Alla Vecchia Pescheria (where the food was, of course, served on flatware of Murano glass) we headed towards the lighthouse and the waterbus stop there.

We took the waterbus to the island of San Michele for some shade and walking. The entire island is a cemetery and photography was prohibited, so I can only share a view of the entrance, and one of the waterbus quay.

The evening brought more walking, and a pretty mediocre dinner. In fact we haven’t been very impressed with the restaurants here. Lots of focus on meat, of course; difficult to find places with more than one or two vegetarian options. Salads, when offered, have oftentimes been no more than uninspired piles of ingredients – like a tuna salad consisting of a bed of lettuce, then a pile of tinned sweetcorn, and another of tinned tuna.

Great gelato, though! Gelatoteca Susa had a wide range of excellent ice cream, with both classical flavours and more modern ones – dark chocolate with lemon, or mango with grapefruit. I didn’t remember to take a photo, but luckily Ingrid did.

And then it was evening again.

We could certainly have entertained ourselves here for longer – museums, churches, other islands, etc – but two days did not feel too short.

Bonus photo by Ingrid:

A full day in Venice. There’s just no way to do the day justice in less than a gazillion pictures, brace yourselves.

Everyone knows Venice is the city of canals. But the corollary of that is that Venice is fully car-free. There is a bus terminal and a giant parking garage at the end of the bridge between the mainland and the island, and beyond that, it’s either walking or boating. Which makes the city incredibly pedestrian-friendly.

So we spent most of the day simply walking. There were a few spots we wanted to check out, and as those happened to be spread out across the island, just going from one to the next let us see a lot of the city.

Ingrid’s research led us to a nice brunch place with courtyard seating and generous yoghurt, fruit and granola bowls.

Fortified by our brunch, we walked more. Every channel was picturesque enough for photos; every bridge invited us to stop and admire the views. I wonder how long you’d have to stay here to get inured to the prettiness of everything.

We ran across a gallery with hyperrealistic life-sized sculptures of swimmers by Carol Feuerman.

More walking. And sometimes resting, because it was a bit hot.

Gradually we made our way to Piazza San Marco. I had expected crowds and was pleasantly surprised to not find any. Not just here, but everywhere in the city. There’s people, of course, but not ridiculous amounts of them.

We did book our trip as early as possible after the end of the school year, to avoid both the crowds and the heat, and it looks like we succeeded. Verona was perhaps even more crowded than Venice.

The basilica of San Marco is a stunning piece of architecture. Had we been in town for a week, I’d have spent a few hours just looking at it, inside and out. And just admiring all the different kinds of marble.

It’s a bit jarring to see two huge squares, lined with giant straight buildings, in a city where real estate is so scarce and and all other buildings are relatively small.

The campanile was open and barely even had a queue, so we paid our 10 EUR each and took the lifts up. I had hoped to climb the stairs to get the full tower experience and feel the height, but that was not an option.

The views from the tower were stunning, as expected.

The view from up here makes it obvious just how small and flat the island is. And how uniformly red all the roofs are.

You can also see the shipping lanes between the islands, marked with wooden poles.

Onwards.

After that we needed a bit of a break from walking along more alleys to more bridges to cross more canals. We decided to take the waterbus to Lido, a neighbouring island, both to rest our legs and to see the city from new angles.

On our way to Lido we passed a super yacht, larger than most buildings in the city. Google Image Search identified it as the Italian-built Lady A, completed this year. Apparently it’s only the 360th largest yacht in the world.

Lido is a long and narrow island. The waterbus stop is at one of its widest points, but even there the walk across the island was no more than a few city blocks. Unlike the main island, this one has streets and cars and space between buildings.

On the other side of the island we found a sandy beach.

The boat trip back gave us a chance to see the “back side” of Venice. Fewer scenic historical buildings; more boat garages and loading docks.

Of course the city hospital’s emergency department is also accessible by boat.

We got off the boat at a stop that was somewhat outside the most well-beaten paths to see some new corners of the city.

We ended up having a pretty lousy dinner at restaurant (Due Fratelli) that a 4.7 average rating on Google Reviews but managed to botch just about everything. The servers mixed up tables, some of the items we got were only vaguely similar to what the menu said, the salads were crap, the pasta was overcooked, and when it was time to pay, card payment was suddenly and mysteriously not available due to “internet troubles” so the only payment option was cash with no receipt for a 10% discount. Clearly a tourist trap, and I guess the Google Reviews were all paid for. It was so bad that it was funny. At least the food was not too bad.

And then the bus took us back to Mestre to our apartment.

Bonus photos by Ingrid:

Postdated. I knew I took more photos this day! And in the mess of my camera stopping working, I somehow misplaced them, but now (three weeks later) I found them again.

Airport car rental. Waiting. No matter how short the queue, it always takes half an hour at least to get through the process.

Our giant Jeep Compass. On the one hand – giant. On the other hand – spacious and modern. I could connect my Android phone to the car’s infotainment system and get Google Maps up on a big screen, and get Spotify to play without fiddling around with a separate Bluetooth speaker.

The main sight in Verona was the Roman-era Arena. I wish we had the time to visit it properly.

When in Italy, gelato is a must. The ice cream parlors here were leaning in hard on the Romeo and Juliet theme, so Eric got a “Coppa Julieta”.

The main square was very crowded. I wonder if this is what we can expect to see Venice as well.

I take photos; Ingrid saves her memories by scrapbooking.

We’re on vacation in northern Italy. Today was mostly a transportation day – flying to Milan and driving to Venice, stopping in Verona on the way to stretch our legs and buy ice cream.

I discovered that my camera lens had stopped working when I unpacked it. I didn’t bring my small camera for the trip so I only have my phone. I feel handicapped and confused and lost.

Anyway, here’s a random street scene from Verona. Verona was prettier and more full of tourists than I had expected.

By the evening we were in Mestre, in mainland Venice. We’re staying in apartments for the whole trip. Hotels in Venice were eye-wateringly expensive – three nights in Venice would have cost as much as return flights from Stockholm to Milan. And apartments suit us better, anyway. We appreciate having access to a kitchen, if for nothing more than the ability to make tea, and a living room with actual sitting furniture. In hotels quite often the bed is the only place where you can sit, and after a week of that my back is always complaining.

Adrian is clearing out his wardrobe of clothes he has outgrown. There’s a ton, because he hasn’t done this in a while.

He’s just at that awkward point where clothes in kids’ sizes are mostly too short, and clothes in adult sizes are mostly too wide. T-shirts and hoodies with a loose fit are easy; trousers are trickier.

These kids’ t-shirts from tretton37 are never going to fit anyone in this household again. I don’t want to throw them away, but it would also feel weird to give them to charity. Oh well – we have space in the basement, so I can just postpone the problem.

We visited Vårsalongen, the Spring Salon, at Liljevalchs art museum. Like last year, the works are all available for viewing online.

Paintings, sculpture, videos, textile art, mixed media etc.

There were plenty of impressive paintings but not many that left a lasting impression.

This intricate drawing/painting of ptarmigan – where the feather patterns hide everything from miniature lemmings to snowflakes – captured our attention.

Whereas this bee-themed one mostly made me think that this could be turned into an embroidery.

There were several textile works that I liked. Especially those that utilized the possibilities of thread and fabric and yarn for something more than just a flat image.

These rocks were my favourites: from a distance they just look like lichen-covered rocks, but up close you can see that it’s all woven tapestry and embroidery. Soft pretending to be hard.

Others left us all puzzled. A rectangular hand-woven piece of fabric in black and white. (Next to it there was another one that was all yellow, with subtle variations in tone and shade.) What made this so special that it stood out from the thousands of other works submitted?

Yet other works sparked different kinds of questions. These five colour-coordinated stacks of men’s ties, seemingly just hung over a hook. How did they transport this work? Probably in parts. Who hung it up again? How did they ensure the ties were hung in the right order, and with acceptable (lack of) precision?

There were also numerous fun sculptures, including one of “seven kinds of cakes” in stone, inspired by a Swedish fika tradition.

If I had room for sculptures and knick-knacks in my home, I would rather like something fun like these fish:

More about the works above: Ptarmigan, Rocks, Fish, Cakes, White yarn thing, Ties, Black & White Weave. Couldn’t find anything for the bee, probably because it was part of the Young Spring Salon.

Painting Easter eggs, as per tradition.

Also as per tradition, Ingrid makes the most artistic ones, while Adrian makes the crazy ones. This year his eggs had body parts – a giant eye, an ear, a mouth.

Afterwards somehow the women ended up cooking dinner while the men snoozed.

Our ski passes and ski rental are valid for another day, and we could have gotten another good four of five hours of skiing in. But the weather is getting worse rather than better – even windier, even wetter – and it really isn’t looking the least bit tempting, so we’re packing up and driving home instead.

Adrian’s snowboarding technique is improving steadily, and is now actually better than his skiing, I think. He is faster and more stable on the skis, but pretty much just snow ploughs straight down, whereas on a snowboard he gets pretty nice curves in now.

Anyway, he was feeling confident enough that he and Eric also got onto blue slopes. The longest slope here in Stöten, “Mormors störtlopp”, is green and gentle one, and very nice if you want an easy and relaxed ride – as a skier. But the topmost bit is a long, flat, narrow section that is not at all good for snowboarders. Ingrid and I have had plenty of time to explore the pistes, and found a blue run that we thought would fit the snowboarders’ needs as well. So we could all go down together, for the first time this trip. Which was nice – and gave me great photo opportunities.

The weather was no better today than before. Still windy and with low clouds and lousy visibility at the top. Around lunchtime we got some sleet, and while that stopped for a while, it later came back as almost-rain.