Saturday September 21st, 2013 Venice, Italy

This morning we made an ascent of the Campanile (Bell Tower) in St. Mark's Square; no ropes, pitons or grappling hooks were required - we just paid the 8 Euros each and rode up in the elevator. Long lines (queues for our British friends) were noted the day before, so we arrived early at 9:30 this morning and there were only about 10 people waiting - we got straight into the elevator.

The original tower was built in 1514 but collapsed in 1902 and reconstruction was complete by 1912. Views from the top of the tower are spectacular and, although there is wire mesh covering the openings on all four sides, the spacing in the mesh is very wide - making it easy to take photographs with the camera outside the wire.

Although there was a brisk wind blowing it was a bright warm morning making for some great photo opportunities. I've been playing with some new photo stitching software, I'm still learning - but so far, the results look OK.

Next up: an excursion to the island of Murano which is located just east of Venice, and it is world famous for glass making. Rather than take the free water taxi that was offered by the hotel we opted to pay 24 Euros for two round trip tickets on the water bus. While this may sound odd, we knew from prior experience that there is no such thing as a "free" water taxi ride; in fact the taxis are funded by several of the glass factories on the island as a way to lure in gullible tourists for a high-pressure sales pitch.

If you plan to take the water bus to Murano, take care to select the right bus; they all leave from a dock near St. Mark's Square - exit the square and turn left, fight your way through the mass of people, cross two bridges and the dock is on your right. Be sure to select the number 7 bus, unless you prefer the Venetian equivalent of a slow boat to China - this is what you get if you select the number 4.1 bus. On the advice of the guy in the ticket booth we got on the 4.1 bus; eleven stops and about 50 minutes later we chugged into Murano.

Our advice on Murano; unless you are a fan of this particular style of glass, don't go! We don't care for the Murano style but held the faint hope that there may be other things to see on the island - but there is not, it's just shop after shop after shop after…. selling the same damn stuff - a bit like cell phone stores in an Asian shopping mall! On our previous trip we took the "free" taxi and suffered through the sales pitch and gallery tour - at the end of which we were so exasperated we headed straight back to Venice.

The day was somewhat rescued by a very simple but delightful pizza lunch at an outdoor cafe off the main canal street.

The 20-minute return journey aboard the number 7 water bus was very much appreciated.