Our second day in Venice started off hot again. After a yummy breakfast in our hotel (it was so nice to have good Italian coffee after the weaker coffee in London and the kids loved the abundance of chocolate croissants and other baked goods!), we spent the morning wandering around the Rialto Bridge area.
John is standing in the middle of the Rialto Bridge in the photo below. 
We divided our time between browsing the stalls at the Rialto Market – where there is fresh produce and seafood for sale, much like a farmer’s market in the U.S. – and browsing the shops in the commercial shopping district – where it was fun to view items for sale, plus cool air conditioning in the shops!!!!
Sun-dried tomatoes!
You can barely see it in the photo below, but at the top of the ice tray with the fresh seafood for sale, was a small bird pecking away at the fresh fish. While this is to be expected in an open-air market, I wouldn’t help but wonder if the eventual owner of this piece of fish would even think that a bird had nibbled it beforehand!
We had reservations for the “skip-the-line” option to tour St. Mark's Basilica just before lunch, so we eventually made our way to the San Marco square where the church is located. We toured the perimeter of this infamous square and gawked at the tourists feeding and taking pictures with the pigeons before entering the cathedral.
Taking photos is prohibited inside the cathedral so I cannot share images of what we saw, but It was interesting to see the differences between the more plainly decorated marble church, San Giorgio Maggiore, that we visited across the canal to the south the day before and this more ornate place of worship. The interior of St. Mark's Basilica is covered in gold glitz and beautiful mosaic tile.
Next we were back on our typical Italy daily cycle – return to hotel, refresh in the air conditioning and change our clothes – before heading back out for lunch and our afternoon excursion.
I am so glad that we ventured into this local bar across the street form our hotel for lunch. Scott and I ordered this enormous sharing plate of all kids of antipasto and cicchetti (small bites), and it was fun to eat in a place that seemed to be frequented by locals and tourists alike.
After lunch we headed back to a water bus stop for a short trip over to the island of Murano. Amelia and John had expressed interest in visiting the island where the infamous Murano glass is produced, and Scott and I were game for this since we did not have a chance to visit Murano on our previous trip to Venice.
We spent several hours walking the shop-lined streets of Murano, viewing the pieces on display and stopping for a gelato treat. This island was much less crowded than the main islands in Venice, which was a pleasant change of pace. We stopped at one of the shops that advertised “glass-blowing tours available” but we were told that because it was Saturday the artisans were not blowing glass on this day. So we were content to wander around for a few hours and enjoy the canal-lined streets of Murano.
We stopped to enjoy a drink at an outdoor patio in a residential courtyard, and I couldn't help but notice this gentleman peering out onto the square from his apartment above.
Eventually we ventured back on the water bus across the canal to the main town of Venice. After cooling off at the hotel we ventured out for a delicious dinner. In my opinion, one of the most fantastic things about Venice is that just walking a short way to dinner is an amazing experience, in that there is so much to see in the space of the city, the architecture of the buildings, and the activity on the canals.
Either Amelia or John must haven taken this picture on my phone. This church was located in a less-touristy square just a few blocks away from our hotel. We walked through this square several times a day getting to/from places, and one afternoon we even saw a wedding party leaving the church. I love the sepia-toned photo and am glad that one of the kids captured this beautiful image of Venice for us.
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