The channel near the Rialto Bridge.
This entry is part of the 2014 Italy (& Turkey too!) Travel Blog Series. Read this story and then the rest HERE.
When traveling with a group... it's important to know ones roles. Typically, I find myself in a planning role - it's what I get paid to do after all. However, on this particular vacation I was truly ON vacation... including a vacation from planning, thanks to Emily. She was a perfect leader with the right amount of organization and flexibility. She coordinated all of our accommodations, travel between cities, and even organized daily itineraries to keep us from missing all the important stuff. It was glorious. All this to say, the group learned very early on that we should listen to Emily when she has something to say:
Our fearless leader, Emily, during breakfast one early morning.
It was our first full day in Venice and we were up and out the door in search of a cup of coffee before I thought humanly possible - the night before was a fun one. Over croissants and americanos near the Rialto Bridge we decided to visit Murano, a small group of islands just north of Venice famous for it's glass blowing.
As Rick Steves explains in his travel guide (the book only second to the bible according to Emily and Jeff), many of the glass blowing demonstrations are closed on Sundays, which happened to be the day of the week it was.
And Rick was right, the streets were quite sparse... all of the people where probably praying while we were cruising the streets with our beverages - would it have been more acceptable to be drinking red wine on a Sunday? Probably.
But we weren't giving up that easily and 45 minutes later we found an open exhibit only to hear they were just breaking for lunch. A little hungry ourselves, we asked the time of the next demonstration and set off, sights set on more pasta and wine.
This is the part of the story where it's important to remember Emily's role in our group.
Emily advises, "The next showing is in an hour. I don't think we'll have time for lunch." - the serving of meals in Italy isn't necessarily a quick process.
Our bellies controlling our brains at the time, the suggestion must not have completely registered and we sat down at a table anyway.
Fifty-five minutes zoomed by (time speeds up when there's good cuisine and conversation). We grab the check quickly and at an awkward, very Americanized, mall-walk pace... booked it back to the glass blowing venue.
Next picture 4 disheveled Americans clamoring into the workshop only to find the glassmaker setting his completed demonstration piece down on the display table. We had missed it.
It was partly the shameful looks we received by the other patrons, but mostly the part about missing the demonstration that really solidified our lesson: we should listen to Emily.
This entry is part of the 2014 Italy (& Turkey too!) Travel Blog Series. Read this story and then the rest HERE.