(Back to) Venezia, Italia: One last stop in Venice, Italy (to see the results of our glass workshop!) before heading home to the U.S.

Let me start by saying I only left Italy because I had to – not because I wanted to.

This is just a quick post to share a few final photos of my recent trip to Italy — including the results of the glass-modeling workshop Kelly and I both took during the first portion of our trip, because I know you’ve all been on the edge of your seats waiting with baited breath to see how our creations turned out!

Kelly and I said goodbye to Florence, hopped back on a Frecciarossa train bound for Venice, and prepared ourselves for the final 24 hours of our trip.

If you’re new here, the two of us started our trip in Venice, and had booked round-trip flights in and out of Marco Polo, so we had to circle back to Venice for our return flights home.

Kelly’d been smart enough to book us a hotel right outside a vaporetto stop, so after we arrived at the train station, we bought 24-hour transit passes and hopped on a ferry to shuttle our stuff to our hotel.

We checked in, and then immediately ventured over to Original Murano Glass to pick up our finished pieces.

They were… awful! But also, not the worst.

I had an absolute blast with our glass modeling workshop. It was truly one of my favorite experiences on our trip. I was definitely more in it for the process than the product —and while Kelly and I did briefly debate whether we even wanted to bother keeping the products — I am glad we went back for them. It was pretty cool to hold a chunk of glass in my hand and be like “wow, I made this! With tools!”

Even if my chunk of glass ended up more as a misshapen, reject paperweight than a flower.

After we picked up our flowers, we wandered around Murano for a bit longer, dodging fat rain drops and ducking in and out of various shops. Kelly bought some glass beads to craft with, and I bought a bracelet.

We eventually made our way back to the main island, where we wandered around until we found (of course) spritz and cicchetti of some kind.

We had drinks and snacks at Bacaro al Momoleto de le Voie, which I would definitely recommend!

It was slow enough (we went out during the riposo hour) that we were able to chat with our bartender for a bit.

Kelly and I apologized for being tourists, and then chatted a bit about tourism in general. He let us know that (as bad as I think Flagstaff’s Airbnb crisis is), Venice is suffering because 75% of its homes are now short-term rentals, and the island’s population is dwindling rapidly because nobody can afford housing.

It’s a double-edge sword, he explained, because the businesses depend on tourism money to survive, and yet, unsustainable tourism practices are killing the local economy.

Yikes.

I usually try my hardest to avoid Airbnbs when I travel, so it made me pretty relieved Kelly and I had stuck to hostels and our single hotel.

After we talked our bartender’s ear off for a bit, Kelly and I went for one last gelato run at Gallonetto.

Then, we rounded our our evening with errands. Kelly grabbed a few bottles of wine to bring home with her in her checked luggage, and the two of us went out for one last dinner in the Cannareggio neighborhood.

And, that was it. We woke up the next morning, grabbed breakfast at our hotel, hopped on the vaporetto, transferred to a bus, and made our way to Marco Polo to depart.

Kelly and I took separate flights home since I was able to find a shorter return trip (Venice to New York City to Phoenix) vs. the longer trip (Phoenix to Detroit to Amsterdam to Venice) for just a little bit less.

We said our goodbyes before security since Kelly’s domestic flight for her layover in Paris was in a different section of the airport than mine.

We got to the airport plenty early because I was a bit worried about passport control — I’ve heard it can be a nightmare if you time your arrival at the same time as a cruise — but I made it through security and had my passport stamped in under 20 minutes.

It was a pretty uneventful journey home. Our plane from Venice to New York City was a bit smaller, and I had an entire row to myself, so once I boarded our sparsely-populated plane, I settled in for back-to-back in-flight movies.

After hopping on my connecting flight that took me to Phoenix, I made it safely to Sky Harbor later that evening where Ryan and (a very excited!) Ochi were waiting for me.

And, that was it!

I had the best time in Italy. If you’ve been around for a while, you know this was my second visit to Italy. My first Italian trip (a way-too-short trip to Milan that I used as a launch-point for a greater trip that involved visits to Istanbul, Prague and Barcelona) just left me wanting a greater taste of Italy, and I’m so glad I was finally able to fulfill that hunger.

Italy was an absolute dream, and this ended up being the trip I wish I could’ve had all those years ago.

I still have several Italian destinations on my bucket list (starting with Cinque Terre… it’ll happen eventually!) so I am so sure I’ll be back to Italy sometime in the future.

Ciao, all!