A day pass to the Vaporetto is 17€ and if you don’t wake up early, it’s hard to get your money’s worth because just a ride from Dorsoduro to Murano can take an hour and a half. If you’re not in a hurry and just want to see Venice but don’t want to walk or pay the extortionary 85€/hour of a gondola, the vaporetto is wonderful. The first thing you notice is the immense distance around the perimeters of each island. While a straight line, even made crooked by canal bridges, is the shortest distance between two points, with the addition of the z-axis over which the vaporettos traverse on the crashing waves, the distance around the island is even longer. While the vaporettos traverse the busy Grand Canal they do not enter the extensive inner canal networks. In other words, traveling by Vaporetto is a route of approximation, both in time and space.
Murano was a severe disappointment. I had really expected some thriving cultural activity and museums due to this island being the origins of contemporary glass art. I wanted to see glass blowers handling a molten yellow orb, maybe losing an eye or doing something moderately dangerous. Instead it was just an empty version of Venezia with shops of the same glass trinkets and animals, most of which were cheaper on Venezia. We went into a cafe immediately after getting off the boat and got up and left after looking at the menu. We ventured further into the island and saw a group of workers smoking outside of modest looking establishment. Inside it was packed.
We ordered a liter of the house wine, which was twice as much as we needed or wanted. The server was friendly and every table seemed to just order more and more wine and food. Even the kids were drunk. Seriously, the waiter had to cut the whole family off.
On the ride back we made a last minute decision to disembark on Cimiteri San Michel and see the grave of Stravinsky and Ezra Pound. We found Stravinsky, which was covered in flowers but it was trying to rain and Vanesa was too impatient to dedicate time to finding the headstone of a fascist, regardless his metric prowess. Pound was a Mussolini supporter who fell on the wrong side of history; poorly measured gamble.