Deja Vu! Venice and Burano

No you are not having deja vu, this is my 2nd Venice post in a month.  Everybody that visits wants to go to Venice and frankly I can't blame them so off we went to Vencie again! :-)  Yeah I know, I know you are probably hating me right now for going twice in one month (sorry!).  This time we went with Mom and Dad Sodergren and Mary and Stan Moore.  We found a cute 3 bedroom apartment near the Rialto bridge on air B&B with a great patio.  We are making it a rule that every time we go to Venice we see something we didn't see before, which amazingly is not difficult.  There are about 11 museums and several islands to see so this time Matt and I peeled off from the group and checked out Burano.  Burano is known for their hand made lace (not to be confused with Murano known for their glass).  We also revisited the basilica and museum and of course was more then well worth the visit.  

When we got off the train in Venice we found out there was a 24 hour strike so none of the valparetto's were working so Stan splurged on a water taxi for us!

Matt with Mom and Dad Sodergren

Matt and Stan

Mary and Mom and Dad Sodergren

Even Sasha loved the water taxi

We rented a great 3 bedroom apartment with Air B&B

The whole crew in St. Mark's Square

Appertivo in St. Mark's Square

The next morning we headed to Burano by ferry:

Silly, Matt!

As we were packing up and saying goodbye to Venice, my father in law used the restroom and when he tried to come out the door handle to the bathroom door fell off!  The door was stuck in the closed position so I had to get the trusty swiss army knife out to bust him out of there!  LOL I had to take the door handle off and finally with Stan and I pushing and Dave pulling we finally got him out of there.

See a swiss army knife does come in handy!

Cinque Terre Finally!

If you have followed along with our adventure you know that I have been trying to get to Cinque Terre for quite a while (between mudslides and 'lost' reservations third time is a charm).  It is the perfect place for me...hiking, sea, beach, and magnificent views...what more could a girl want?!

We left midday Thursday and Matt's parents, Sasha, Matt, and I piled into my mini cooper for a 3 hour drive south.  We stayed in Montrosso (the first of the 5 towns) at the Hotel Baia.  I just have to say I had 225 pictures I had to sort through and try to figure out which ones to post, because everywhere you look was a postcard waiting to happen.

View of our Hotel and Beach

View from our Hotel Room

Friday morning we made the first hike from Monterosso to Vernazza, had lunch in Vernazza then hiked to the 3rd town Corniglia.  On Saturday we took the boat from Monterosso to the 5th town, Riomaggiore.  Along our hike I turned a corner and saw a guy with an SIU hat!  Of course that struck up a conversation, because it isn't every day you meet a fellow Saluki.  They were a group of 4 and all went to SIU, met there, and married.  Also along the way Sasha had lots of opportunities to show off her licking skills and people felt the need to share their water with her (ps - she had plenty of water in my backpack, but I think some people just wanted to give her water :-) ). 

This guy was selling homemade lemoncello!

I was trying to pose for a picture and I was lick attacked!!

Matt, don't drop your eyeglasses in the sea!

Sasha is so curious what is under the boat

Enjoying a few drinks at sunset with Mom and Dad Sodergren

Saturday night we went out to dinner at a Michelin restaurant in Monterosso called Miky.  I had the sea bass ravioli

Matt and Mom Sodergren wondering how we are going to fit in the mini

Bye Bye Cinque Terre...until next time (there will be a next time).....