Venice Day 2- Murano/Burano

Ever since I got interested in glass in high school, I've been fascinated by Murano, the Venetian island known for centuries for glass making. I've had this image of what I thought it would be like in my head for years. And of course, whenever you build something up like that, you're bound for disappointment. To be fair though, Linda warned me.

I was expecting heat and grit and gaffers who were jovial, but secretive, guarding centuries of family knowledge. What I got was slash and glass. Everything looked the same. I watched one of the most lack luster glass blowing demos ever, given by one of the most joyless makers I've ever seen. It was sad, like watching an animal in the zoo. I saw more spectacular work being done at the hot shop and Kent State.

I saw the signs for furnaces everywhere, but the only actual furnace I saw was where we went to the free demo. It made me wonder if these furnaces were just closed to the public, or closed for good. Everything else was shops full of glass for tourists to buy. Some of it was cool. Most of it looked the same. As I said before I did buy a little glass. I snuck a studio shot of the one store where I bought my murini, and that made me feel a little better. We did see two large scale contemporary glass sculptures, also.

Love this color scheme.


We wandered around for a while, looking for the ferry to take us to Burano, and in the process found this little area down by the water where the boats wash up all sorts a pebbles and bits of glass that have been thrown into the canal. We spent quite a while there, picking through it, collecting bits we liked. Bob would have been so proud.

We finally found the right boat and hopped on over to Burano, the lace making island. Burano was way cooler than Murano, but unfortunately we were running out of time and didn't stay there long. All of this lace in hand made. There was so much of it, and it was simply stunning. I regret not buying just a little something from here.

The houses were all painted these crazy parti colors and the whole town/island had kind of a beach town vibe. It felt a little less touristy than the other parts of Venice we were in.

After Burano, we watched a short film on the history of Venice, hung out in San Marco Piazza, where we watched this beautiful Italian couple make out for 15 minutes, went to dinner and went back to the hostel to pack for the next morning's departure for Certaldo.