Day 6 - We arrived in Venice (mainland) in the afternoon and were offered an optional tour of the Canals of Venice (69 euro). As I've been to Venice several times I preferred to wander around the streets, rather than take a tour which included a gondola ride. A few of the group decided to take the small train (people mover) from where the buses park (Tronchetto Island is a man made island shown to the left of the above picture) to the island of Venice (note: first stop is for cruise ships), but unfortunately it was on the far side of the island and away from St. Mark's square. We walked for 30 minutes following the signs for San Marco, then turned and walked back following the signs for Piazzale Roma, returning on the train to meet the Trafalgar coach. The hotel where we stayed that night, Il Burchello, was once a villa converted into a hotel. As with most of the hotels it wasn't near enough to do any additional sightseeing of Venice (17km). One additional feature that the hotel had was a laundry room. Near the hotel (across the river) is a small supermarket and wine shop. Stock up on water here as it's considerably cheaper than in the tourist areas. There is also a pathway along the river for a nice evening walk.Day 7 - Venice
When we arrived back at Tronchetto Island the following morning, we took a boat cruise to Giudecca Island where we toured a glass factory before going across the lagoon to St. Mark's Square. There was an optional tour, Majestic Venice (35 euro), but it was so crowded in the square and water had begun to bubble up from the lagoon, flooding part of the square so we decided instead to head to Santa Maria Della Salute crossing the canal by bridge and then taking the gondola/Traghetto back across the canal - 2 euros.After meeting the group back at St. Marks we selected the optional tour to Burano which included dinner (69 euro). We chose not to join everyone for dinner (I think it was 39 euro without the dinner) and instead wandered around Burano and stopped for pizza at a local pizzeria (I think this was called Devil Take Away Pizza). Burano was well worth the optional cost - Burano is a quaint and peaceful town.
