Murano and Burano Italy

Just outside of Venice, on a less than an hour vaporetto ride, lay the islands of Murano and Burano. Known for their glass, lace and colorful houses, Murano and Burano are great places to visit and make for a great day trip outside of Venice.

How to Get There:

The only way to get to the islands of Murano and Burano is via boat. If you get on line 12, the first stop is at Murano. You can also stay on that line and will eventually get on Burano. From Burano, you can take another vaporetto and end up back at St. Mark's Square. The boat rides can take a while. From Venice, the boat ride is about 30 minutes to Murano. And from Murano, it is another 30-45 minutes to Burano. 

What You Will See:

The island of Murano is known for it's hand-blown glass. There are many shops that all house beautifully unique pieces. From jewelry to home decor to pens to jewelry, Murano has everything imaginable made out of glass. We happened to be there on a Saturday and we got to the island slightly before 9:00 am and most of the shops were closed. But the more we walked around, a few more shops started to open. We found out because it was a Saturday, lots of glass blowers don't work that day. Because of that, many shops were closed. But it was actually nice to only have a few options to go see (there were still PLENTY of shops to wander through!) There are also glass blowing demonstrations to see. Blogs we read said that there were free demonstrations, but we did not find any for free, but we did find a cute small shop with demonstrations for only 2 Euros per person. 

We had so much fun walking around and exploring the island. The shops were so amazing to see. Because these shops feature people's artwork, most of them do not allow pictures. Also, you need to be extra careful if you have large bags because everything in the shops are made of glass. 

There are lots of choices for souvenirs to take home from Murano, but be careful in your choices. Make sure that what you take is well wrapped and can be easily transported. Some things we brought home were magnets, glass cherries, a Christmas ornament, a fountain pen and some Pandora charms for my charm bracelet. Nothing came home broken even though most of it was packed in our luggage. 

Once you get to Burano, you will see SO MANY COLORS! The homes are all painted in such vibrant colors. Our favorite part was just wandering up and down the canals and seeing all of the different colors. We saw lots of kiosks with lace, but did not find any lace factories or tours. Part of the reason was because we couldn't find that much info on Burano and the fact that we were extremely tired. (This was our last day of our 3 weeks Europe before coming home.) Even though we didn't spend a lot of time on the island because we were tired, you could easily spend hours just wandering around the cute little town. They also have really good gelato there :)

Sum Up:

Murano and Burano are great places to visit if you are spending a couple days in Venice. They make for a great day trip and, just like Venice, are perfect for getting lost in. They are so cute and small enough to explore without feeling like you could get lost. Make sure you buy your souvenirs on Murano and take a TON of pictures and get gelato on Burano.

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The Frari Church in Venice

One of the great artistic secrets of Venice is the Frari church, formerly known as Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. It really is hidden and we wouldn't have known about it at all if it didn't have a dedicated track in the Rick Steves app. We likely would have walked right past it if we hadn't known to look for it. As a church it isn't unimpressive looking, but there are so many churches in Venice, and Europe generally, that it can be hard to know which ones you should go into. They are probably all worth seeing, but as with all things in travel there just isn't enough time.

How to Get There:

Like most things in Venice outside of St. Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge, the Frari Church is not easy to find. I honestly don't know if we would have found it if our friend Holly hadn't had a working phone with data and GPS. Your best shot if you don't have a phone with data may be to use the Lonely Planet guide. Remember that your phone's GPS will still work to show you where you are as long as you have downloaded the map before hand. 

Because of the congested nature of the Venetian alleys you will not see the Frari Church until you are actually in the Campo dei Frari where it stands. It dominates the square as it is a large redbrick gothic basilica. But having already passed a number of churches you may be unsure if you are in the right place. You will see a sign with the word Frari on it, and then you will know you have arrived. 

Before you head out to visit the Frari Church make sure that you are appropriately attired to visit a religious site, this means being modestly covered, removing your hat, putting away your selfie stick, etc. 

When you arrive you will enter through the front door and there will be a small booth to your right where you can purchase your tickets which are just €3 per person. There are some steps just to the left of this booth where you can leave your bag if you would like, although I don't think it was required. 

What You Will See:

Unless you know an awful lot about 16th century Venetian art and the Franciscan order I would definitely recommend using the Rick Steves' audio guide here. I don't pretend to know anything about art of any century so I really liked having something to listen to in the Frari. I am sure I would have enjoyed seeing the religious paintings without the guide, but I certainly wouldn't have understood their significance in context.

One of the really special things about the Frari Church is the chance to see full alter pieces in their intended settings. The church has a number of chapels and each one has an alter piece of its own.

You also get the chance to see the church's reliquary which I was excited about since both Notre Dame and Saint Mark's charge you to see their reliquaries.

In addition to the art, there is a ton of it for a single church, and the relics, you will also see several tombs that are quite impressive. The visit to the church won't take you much longer than total length of Rick's audio guide, depending on how long you want to look at the artwork.

It is worth noting that you are allowed to take pictures in here, which is rare for a church. I did not realize this until we were leaving, which is why we have so few and such low quality images for this post as I just snapped a few on my phone on the way out.

Sum Up:

I really enjoyed visiting the Frari Church and highly recommend it. Not only is it very cool to see, but it is also very cool temperature wise inside. Considering that when we were in Venice it was blistering hot and oppressively humid, this was a great blessing. It is not very expensive to visit, so it is certainly wort the cost of getting in. As a lesser known site in Venice it doesn't get very crowded which in contrast to St. Mark's Basilica gives you the time and attention to enjoy yourself. 

The Doge's Palace and Venetian Prisons

St. Mark's Basilica is arguably the most famous site in Venice, but right next to it, actually connected to it, is the Doge's palace, and just across from the palace via the Bridge of Sighs are the historic prisons of Venice. If you are interested in Venetian history, which you will be once you are in Venice, then these are a must see.

How to Get There:

Finding the Doge's Palace is not hard once you get to St. Mark's square. It is the building to the right when you are facing the basilica. If you come by vaporetto you can get of at either of the San Marco stops on the 1 or the 2 boat, it really doesn't make much difference. The key to visiting the Palace though is not to stand in the line at the palace itself. Instead go to the Correr Museum across the square from the basilica. We were clued into this by the Rick Steve's audio guide for the San Marco Square. There is never a line at this museum and the ticket for it will get you into the Correr, the two other museums attached to it, and the Doge's Palace and prisons for just €19.

Once you have your ticket from the Correr you just go around the right side of the palace. There will be a line full of people, and an empty line. The empty line is for you because you already have tickets. 

What You Will See:

Once inside you will enter the main courtyard of the Palace. When I was there I really wanted to go see the prisons so we followed the signs for them and it took as through the whole palace as well. This palace explains and is dedicated to the history of Venetian government, which is quite fascinating, at least to those of us who studied political science. Walking through the palace reminded us a lot of Versailles in Paris because there was so much gold and incredible murals, and general richness around the place. You can take as long as you want walking around here, but be aware that they close the palace at 6 PM so if you go late in the day like we did you will need to go pretty quick.

Just keep following the signs and you will eventually cross the Bridge of Sighs into the prisons. These are a stark contrast to the beautiful palace you have just walked through. They are thick stone walls with small rooms, double bunks in each room and tiny windows looking out into the hall. Its pretty much what you would imagine a prison being like.

Sum Up:

The Doge's Palace and the Venetian Prisons are some of the most important sites in Venice. They are really cool to see and have the advantage of being indoors which is nice if it is unbearably hot outside, like it was when we were there. The tickets seem a little expensive, but when you figure how many places they let you see and the fact that you are in Venice, they aren't too bad. I would recommend going to see them if you are interested in museums or history. 

St. Mark's Campanile

When you are looking at St. Mark's Square in Venice, the most apparent building in the square is St. Mark's Campanile (or bell tower). It is tall, slightly crooked, and a beautiful red color and stands out amongst the white and creme colored buildings.

How to Get There:

If you are traveling by vaporetto, you can get off at any of the San Marco stops. If you are planning on walking, follow the yellow signs to San Marco. (Check out our post here for more details about getting around Venice.) Once you get to the square you will easily be able to see which building is the bell tower. 

The entrance to the Campanile is on the side of the tower that faces St. Mark's Basilica. You will enter the doors and buy your tickets. From there, you will stand in a very small line area and wait for the elevator to get to the top of the bell tower. The elevator only takes 12-15 people up at once, but the line does move pretty fast.  

What You Will See:

If you are lucky enough to time your visit on the half hour, you will be able to hear the bells ring at the top of the tower. We just happened to go up during the time the bells were ringing. It was such an amazing experience that we highly suggest that you go up while the bells are ringing. It is extremely loud though so if you have little kids, you might want to bring ear plugs for them. 

At the top of the tower you have amazing 360 degree views of the city. It was amazing to me to see how big Venice seemed from up there. It was also neat, and kind of sad, to see how many of the other bell towers and other buildings around Venice are severely leaning to one side due to the unstable foundation of the city. 

As you look out around the city, there are plaques that go with the Venice Panorama app that give you information about what you are looking at. It is a paid app and we did not know about it or download it before we were at the top of the tower, so we can't vouch for how well it works. It is a cool idea and we did wish we knew more of what we were looking at. If any of you have used it we would love to hear your experience with it!

Sum Up:

Visiting St. Mark's Campanile was one of my favorite things we did in Venice. It offers amazing, unique views of Venice. If you make it to the top on or around the half hour, you will be in for a treat of listening to the bells ring. Even though it is extremely noisy, it is such a unique experience and we highly recommend it. Visiting the bell tower is high on our list of Venice must do's and is totally worth the 8 euro price tag.

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Visiting Saint Mark's Basilica

While getting lost and wandering around the beautiful streets of Venice was one of my favorite things we did, Saint Mark's Basilica is definitely a main attraction to this seaside city. Located in Saint Mark's Square, and also known as Basilica San Marco in Italian, the Basilica is a beautiful piece of architecture on the outside and full of beautiful details on the inside.

How to Get There:

Getting to Saint Mark's Basilica is pretty easy because it is one of the main features of Venice. There is lots of signage pointing you towards the basilica if you choose to walk. Or you can get off at either of the San Marco stops on a vaporetto. Saint Mark's Basilica is located at the East end of Saint Mark's Square, right next to Doge's Palace. 

To get inside the building, you will need to stand in line. The line starts at the front of the building and heads towards the Doge's Palace. They do not allow large bags to be brought into the basilica but they do have a bag check. To get there, head north of the basilica, past the lion statues into a little alley way between the yellow and white buildings. If you get lost or confused, just ask someone near-by and they can tell you where to go. There is also a map of where to check your bag near the entrance to the basilica. The bag check is free, but lasts only an hour. 

Also to get inside the building, you will need to be covered. They do not allow bare shoulders or knees inside of the basilica. If you do come with bare shoulders or knees, they do have these plastic table cloths that you can wrap around yourself to cover the bare skin. 

What You Will See:

To get inside of the church is free, and within the church there are areas that you can pay to go see. We only did the free things and it was still a beautiful experience. We suggest listening to Rick Steves Audio Europe app and following along on the St. Mark's Basilica track (the track starts with the outside of the church). It took us about 30 minutes to see the free parts of the church and this included listening to Rick. 

Inside the basilica you will see lots and lots of mosaics. They are all over the place! The floors, the ceilings, the walls, everywhere. The mosaics were my favorite part of the church. They were so detailed and so beautiful! Because Saint Mark's Basilica is an active, working church, they do not allow pictures inside. 

Saint Mark's Basilica is a beautiful place and is a nice way to take a little bit of a break. It is dark and cool and a nice place to relax for a bit before heading back into Venice. The lines to get into Saint Mark's can often be quite long and get especially long during the afternoon. The best time to go is first thing in the morning when they open. But be aware that the line starts forming at least 30 minutes prior to them opening the doors. 

Sum Up:

Saint Mark's Basilica is one of the main attractions to see in Venice. Located in Saint Mark's Square, it is a free site to see with paid options inside. Without doing the paid options it takes about a half an hour. There is a Rick Steves Audio Europe track to listen to while you are visiting the basilica that gives you lots of information and neat history about this beautiful church.

Getting Around Venice

Venice is a crowded, ancient city built in a lagoon on top of hundreds of individual islands. It is this very nature that makes Venice one of the most charming places on the planet and probably why you want to go there in the first place. However this unique history also causes it to be a difficult city to navigate. This guide will help you to avoid frustration as you visit this incredibly amazing location.

Embrace Getting Lost:

While there are a few "must sees" in Venice, like the Grand Canal and St. Mark's Basilica, the real attraction is Venice itself. This place is amazing, I can't even tell you how much I loved just looking at it. So if you are lost, don't sweat it, you are seeing what you came here to see and sooner or later your going to stumble upon a major area with lots of people and be able to find your way again.

Getting lost is easy in Venice because it has two types of streets: canals which will only help you if you are a boat, and alleys that cross the canals via hundreds of bridges. Because you are not a boat you will mostly get around Venice on foot, and you will love it. A few tips though are to carry as little as possible, because you will be going up and down a lot of bridges, and be aware that the main alleys can get extremely crowded during busy times, so watch for pick pockets. 

Watch for Yellow Signs:

As you walk around Venice you will go down many different alleys and through an enormous number of squares. You will likely have some famous place you are trying to get to, such as San Marco Square. The key to getting there is to watch when you come to crossroads or through a square for the yellow signs posted on the walls above alleys. These will have arrows directing you down certain alleys to certain places. They key is to keep looking for these signs. For example if you follow a sign pointing to the Rialto Bridge down one alley, the next time you come to a square you need to look for the next sign pointing to the Rialto Bridge. Following this pattern will eventually get you to the place you are looking for.

Use Vaporetti (Water buses):

Like most major cities in the world, Venice has a public transit system. Unlike most major cities this system is made out of vaporetti, or water buses. These are public ferries that cruise around Venice, mainly on the Grand Canal, and to the outlying islands like Lido, Murrano, and Burrano.

There are a couple things to consider before taking a vaporetto. The first is whether you can figure out how to get there on a vaporetto. The lines are confusing, especially when you first arrive and don't know much about the city. Maps can be found posted at each vaporetto stop or can be purchased from the info station near the railway station for €3. Its a rather steep price for a rather bad map, Venice is one big tourist trap, so be prepared for it.

The second thing to know is that if you take the number 1 or the number 2 bus which are the main lines down the Grand Canal you likely could have walked to your destination faster. The benefit of taking the water bus is that you don't have to walk. The drawback is that travel on the Grand Canal is not fast, especially when making a lot of stops. On the plus side if you can get a spot standing on the deck you can see Venice in a completely different way than you do by walking.

The third thing to know is to make sure you get the right stop. There will normally be several stops right next to each other each one only receiving one or two of the routes, normally only in one direction. These stops will all have the same name (i.e. Ferrovia) but will be labeled with different letters (i.e. Ferrovia A, Ferrovia B, etc).

The fourth thing to know is that it is expensive to take the water buses. A ticket will cost you €7,50 and unless you are making a transfer right away you can assume that is a one way price. In the next section I will talk about getting a pass if you are going to ride the buses quite a bit.

One important note is that if you want to visit any of the outlying islands you will need to take a vaporetto or a private water taxi. Since we highly recommend you visit the islands of Murrano and Burrano this will entail at least one vaporetto trip.

Unica/Rolling Venice Pass:

The best way to use the vaporetti system, if you plan to ride it more than a couple times, is to get a pass. Unfortunately this is fairly confusing process online, so I suggest you just wait until you get there which is what we did. If you arrive by train into the railway station, or by bus into Pizza Roma you will be close to the information booth just outside the train station. This is where you can buy passes. You might also be able to buy passes at the airport, but I am not sure about that.

When you buy a pass you can choose how many days you want it for. If you are over 29 years old be sure to plan your trip so that you only get the number of days you need. If possible try to group all your water bus trips on to a single day to save money. If you are under 29 years old you qualify to get a special youth pass with the purchase of an add on called Rolling Venice. This special youth pass will be good for 3 days and will cost you only €22. The Rolling Venice costs €6 itself but this is by far the best deal. I know that is confusing, for some reason they can't seem to make it easy.

Note that online it will say that this "youth pass" won't get you to the airport, that is only true for airport direct shuttles. The pass will work fine on the public bus (#5) that runs to the airport.

The passes are made out of somewhat heavy paper which have a proximity chip inside them for tapping on to the water busses. Be sure the keep them in a safe place, preferably a theft resistant bag, and keep them dry.

Gondolas:

Gondolas are very cool to watch on the canals, they also happen to be very expensive. If you ride in a gondola it is not to get from one place to another but rather to experience the gondola ride. We did not do one because of how expensive it is, but if you are wondering it is €80 during the day and €100 during the evening. You can take up to 6 people with you, so if your group is large enough you can lower the price per person quite a bit.

Getting To and From the Airport:

The Marco Polo airport is one of the most likely places you will arrive in Venice. Except that it is not actually in Venice since it is on the mainland. That means that when you arrive you will need to get from the airport to Venice. This was one of the most stressful parts of the trip because we didn't know how we would get there even though I had looked it up online and was planning to take the #5 bus. It turns out that there are actually quite a few ways to get to the city from the airport, so it isn't something to stress over. 

The #5 bus worked just fine, although we missed one right when we arrived because of a delay our plane had leaving Paris. The #5 is a public bus and what Google Maps will likely recommend to anyone looking for a public transportation option. Since it is a public bus it makes quite a few stops on the way to the island and also can get quite crowded. There are several other buses that are just for getting to and from the airport so you could also buy tickets for one of them. You can of course also take a private taxi if you want, either land or water.

If you take a land vehicle to the island you will cross a huge bridge and get off at Piazza Roma. From there you can cross the large glass bridge to the area by around the train station and the vaporreti stops.