Italy in 45 Days - Day 44: Venice

On our last day in Venice I purchased a day pass that covered riding any vaporetto in the Venice area for 24 hours. Our first stop was at the small island of San Michele which is a cemetery. Here is buried Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) considered by many to be the greatest composer of the 20th Century. His wife Vera is buried alongside and nearby is the grave of Stravinsky's chief benefactor, the great impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) who founded the famous Ballet Russe in the early 20th Century. Diaghilev discovered Stravinsky when he was a young music student in St. Petersburg studying with Rimsky-Korsakov. After hearing Stravinsky's short orchestral piece "Fireworks," he sensed his potential. Stravinsky wrote three consecutive masterpieces for the Ballet Russe, "The Firebird" (1910), "Petrouchka" (1911) and "The Rite of Spring" (1913).
From San Michele we continued on to the Islands of Murano, famous for fine glass making. Although I was a bit disappointed with Murano's Glass Museum, I'm glad we visited. The Basilica di Santi Maria e Donato on Murano has a perfectly preserved mosaic floor that is centuries old. We ate lunch at "La Peria Ai Bisatei” which specializes in seafood and has low prices unheard of in Venice. Both my wife and I had a whole grilled fish. Unfortunately there is no video of our lunch as the restaurant was kindly charging my phone.
From Murano we made our way by vaporetto to Piazza San Marco where we each had a beverage at the same cafe on the piazza that we sat two days prior. We caught another vaporetto to the Church of San Giorgio Maggiore on a little island across from Piazza San Marco. This church has a bell tower with an elevator that has the greatest of all views of Venice.
Then we cruised down the Grand Canal and under the Rialto Bridge, then got off at "San Stae" which is a four minute walk to our room. From the same "San Stae" dock, we took an airport shuttle boat the next morning direct to the Venice Airport. From there we flew to Rome. We stayed in Fiumicino near the Airport for one night before flying back to the U.S.