The morning started very overcast but we decided to go on and catch the boat for Burano and Torcello. First lovely thing was when we walked into “our” bar for coffee the young woman greeted us in the usual friendly way but then she remembered our coffee orders! How nice to feel like a regular.
Then we walked to Fondamenta Nove and got on the boat. It took about 40 minutes to get to Burano, including 2 stops. We met a couple from Alabama who’s sister lives in Tallahassee—nice talking to them for a while.
Burano is quaint and pretty in a kitchy way. We walked around seeing the pretty colored houses.

Also, they have their own leaning tower there. We were standing on a quiet street looking at it, from a distance of, say, two blocks. A man walked up and started telling us about it–you could just feel his love for his island, his place and his leaning tower. It was hard to understand him with his Buranese accent but I managed to get that the tower is 82 meters high and some kind of restoration was done to it last year. Also he tole us how to walk over to it which we did. Afterward, we walked through the town and went into a bakery to buy some cookies. Where we stopped they had a small deli case and made panini, too so we go a couple. They had a chicken loaf with asparagus and that’s what I got in my sandwich–it was really delicious! Ken, of course, got his favorite, salami and cheese. We sat in a park, near the boat docks and ate them.
Then we took the 5 minute ride to Torcello. It was so peaceful there. Imagine seeing the chair of Atilla from the 5th century! There are about 4 or 5 restaurants there but they were all empty. From one side of the island we could see rain and dark skies but it never came to us. The whole day was sunny, breezy and clear. I wore a light sweater most of the day.
I took this picture of a litttle shrine in a garden on Torcello:

We came home. I was so sleepy on the boat ride that I leaned my head against Ken and dozed a little. We relaxed for a while and then went for a walk to see the Questura from the Donna Leon books. Turned out, it was exactly where we had walked yesterday but didn’t realize it.
We made dinner in the apartment. Pasta with zucchini and onions–and I chopped up the little bit of leftover ham and threw that in, too. It was good. And we drank a Valpolicella Ripasso which we both enjoyed.
Too late, really, we went out to the Ca d’Oro gelato place and got some ice cream. I felt too full all night after that but I think it’s really a great gelato place–about a 4 minute walk from our apartment.
I took this of the canal in front of our house; it’s called Rio dei Mendicanti: