Since we slept early the previous night, even though we woke up in the middle to eat, we were fully refreshed and jetlag-free by day 2. We had breakfast at Venice pastry, we found this little cafe while just walking around our neighborhood. We ate pistachio croissants (another must try when in Italy!) but since we didn’t get it warmed up, it wasn’t as incredible as it could have been. The cappuccino was fantastic though. I also liked that they had some seating in the back of the bakery, and it was empty when we were there. We also had a view of the kitchen and my kids enjoyed watching the bakers making the next batches of goodies.
After breakfast, we strolled along Piazza San Marco, admiring Doge’s Palace and the Bell Tower. We also took a picture by the famous Bridge of Sighs, but didn’t actually realize it at the time! We were there pretty early, around 9am, and the line in Basilica San Marco was fairly short. So we decided to wait and visit the Basilica. We also purchased the audioguide with the full city tour at the entrance to the basilica – on hindsight, this was not worth it and we had to hang on it and make a stop back at the end of the day to return it. Instead, I highly recommend downloading the Rick Steves app on your phone, and pre-downloading individual audioguides for Venice. We used Rick Steves throughout the trip and it was really informational (and free!) However, inside the basilica was so crowded that it was difficult to follow along with the audioguide, we were essentially herded along a path and there was no room to stop and locate the specific murals the guide was talking about.
After the basilica tour, we walked around the Piazza San Marco area and checked out the menus of all the restaurants on the way. We found one that had vegetarian options that looked interesting, the place was Ristorante Dallo Zio San Marco. The food was good and the service was decent, although it was just one of many restaurants catered to tourists.
After lunch, we walked to Fondamente Nove port and took the vaporetto to Murano island. Murano is famous for glass-blowing artisans and you can see several stores advertising demonstrations as well as authentic Murano glass products for sale. (Side note: There are a lot of souvenir shops selling “Murano glass” in Venice island, but not all of them are authentic, especially the cheaper ones, so be cautious about that)
We did not want to feel pressured to purchase anything, so we decided to pay for a glass demonstration at Glass Cathedral, and that was one of the highlights of our Venice trip. The artisan made a beautiful vase and a dolphin on the spot, and showed us how he adds color to the glass using various color salts and mica. We also enjoyed an aperol spritz (juice for the kids) as part of the experience. At the end of the show, we approached the artisan to ask a question, but unfortunately he did not speak English. However, he was so kind to let our kids take a picture in his workspace, pretending to be a glass blower. We also loved the venue, especially the beautiful chandelier in the first floor.
After that experience, we walked around Murano a bit more and then took the vaporetto to Burano island. By this time, the kids were somewhat tired and cranky, but Burano lifted their spirits with its colorful buildings (we also bought pastry from a shop to get their cooperation) We also found a really fun playground in a residential area and the kids spent quite some time there while we ate our pastry.
Afterwards, we took the vaporetto back to Venice and had dinner at Ristorante Mondo Novo. They had a really persuasive waiter out front who convinced us about the vegetarian options, but honestly I found the food to be quite average compared to everything else we had eaten thus far.