timbloom

We know Venice quite well and will be back there for 3 days in October prior to a Viking cruise. St Marks Square and other popular places can get ridiculously crowded. I think the best way to appreciate Venice is to just walk around the back streets taking in the atmosphere. If you want to see St Marks and Rialto Bridge by all means walk through but I wouldn't linger. Actually the visit to glass factory is a boat trip to Murano where there are several glass factories. You can go there by vaporetto and then visit Burano island which is equally lovely. We enjoyed both. We find to get good ideas about interesting places and restaurants we go into YouTube or YouTube TV and just put the location i.e.Venice into the search box - you will find many interesting videos from visitors. Good luck.

Would highly recommend any of the London Walks that take your fancy. They start I think either at 11am or 2pm from usually outside a tube entrance. You don't need to book so just turn up and pay the guide. They last about 2 hours. We have done the London in the Blitz [around St Pauls], Inns of the Court, and the Palaces of Westminster. All great and some of the guides are sometimes actors in between engagements who out on a bit of a show. You can look them all up I think at Londonwalks.com