ESCAPETHEROOMers are in Venice, my favorite city in Italy! Although we are only here for a few…read morehours, we had to check out the only escape room in Venice (close to the port area) - "Escape Venice"! Transportation in Venice is quite tricky. We discovered the People Mover (a train with 3 stops) was quite easy to use to get us from the cruise port to the main hub. We strongly suggest you store your luggage at one of the storage units at the Piazzale Roma station and walk everywhere. There's a lot of bridges with stairs and pebble stone walkways. Water taxis are quite expensive and if not necessary, walking is the best option in the port area. It was quite convenient to use the bus from the central bus station to the airport afterwards. We'll have a tutorial of this in our travel vlog of Venice soon. As we walked about 15 minutes or so in the meandering roads of Venice (we used Google maps), it would be a bit difficult to find if you didn't have pre-printed directions. We stopped pretty much every few steps as the views of the canals, small boutique cafes, and magnificent structures can be seen from every corner of our eyes. As you approach on to the right street it's on (which turns into a dead end), turn right and you'll reach an ancient door (you CAN'T miss it). The room that we are trying - "The Merchant of Venice" is inspired by Shakespeare's comedy. We loved how the game started and how we were immediately absorbed into the storyline. As we stood in Shylock's studio in the times of Serenissima Republic, we had to get to work to find the hidden treasure right away. Given how much space they had to work with, I think they did a great job utilizing all that they can. The props and set design felt authentic from the actual time frame. I must say, I have never seen so many puzzle locks in my life! If you love puzzles and love to open locks, this room is your sweet spot! The clarity of clues to the actual puzzle was great and easy to follow. It's not all linear so groups can work on different puzzles at the same time but there will be a point it does become quite linear. We had a minor issue with one mechanism in the room, but I think it also had to do with us being not locals and knowing their culture. They definitely added a few puzzles that had their local flavor and history to it. The owner did give us a few minutes extra to finish the room as we did spend some time at the beginning with filming and this room is pretty challenging with just two people. Our recommended size would be 4 people due to the room size and the number of puzzles especially if you are not experienced players. This room definitely gave my brain a workout as I slept like a baby on the plane ride back to NY feeling quite satisfied. It was a great way to finish our Europe tour. As we dived into the escape room owner's history, we now understand where a lot of these ideas of the puzzles comes from. One of the owners is the President and the other is on the executive board of the Escape Room ASD which is a Chess, Checkers and Go club. Members of this club will get a 5-euro discount when playing this game. Currently they are working on something that might take the escape hunt outside of the escape rooms. We can't wait to see what they create and next time we will definitely stay longer in Venice and take up the challenge! *For more info, check out my Yelp profile.

If I had a million dollars (or euros) to spent at BF Signoretti Glass, I STILL would have trouble…read moredeciding what to buy! I love art glass and many of the pieces I saw make my heart flutter. WARNING: There are many glass galleries you can go to on the island of Murano under the umbrella of Murano Venetian Glass Center, and the quality of these places vary unbelievably from cheap tourist glass to art museum quality. So the turn "Murano Glass" doesn't really mean anything. However, BF Signoretti Glass Factory produces the highest quality Murano Glass, and it ranks as one of the world's top art glass producer. We were able to find them based on the recommendation of a local company. We spend a good three hours there because it was like a trip to a museum. Our guide (OK, salesman) was very, very low key in terms of sales and very helpful in guiding us through at least a dozen different showrooms. At NO point, did we feel pressure to buy anything. We started with a demonstration, as well as actual creation of the parts of a chandelier they were making. The craftmanship was outstanding, led by owner and artisan Alex Signoretti. We also had a demonstration of creating a small horse that only took only (and exactly) two minutes from beginning to end. However, the pieces they sell take sometimes months of work to create. We honestly had no intention of buying anything because I wanted to go because I just love looking at art glass. However, in the end, we wound up being a small cobalt blue vase, as well as four drinking glasses. It was shipped from Italy to our house (no charge) and arrived in perfect condition. Even if you don't intend to buy anything, if you like art glass, this is a most worthwhile 10 to 15 minute boat ride away from Venice. It's an experience I will never forget! We were not allowed to take photos in the showrooms, but their website has many great examples. I recommend looking at this page in particular: https://bfsignoretti.com/en/collections/.