Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Murano & Burano

On our second day in Venice, we visited two clusters of islands off of Venice, Murano famous for glassware & Burano, famous for lace making.

Audrey and I took a boat from our hotel to Murano, the ride there was beautiful and I think during this ride is what solidified my falling in love with Venice.  Riding through the canals, seeing all the dilapidated yet still beautiful buildings with uneven doorways and water stains, boats bopping in the water, the brightest blue sky I'd ever seen, the sun's warmth on my face, the absence of people in the streets, and the silence of the morning brought a sense of peace that I have not felt in a long time.
 
When we got to Murano, we were greeted by nice gentlemen who took us to a small shop where the "Master" creates, all the glassware sold in their adjacent store.  We watched Master Mariano create a vase and a horse figurine, each in less than 2 minutes.  We were amazed! After the small demonstration, we walked through their store which had everything from vases, chandeliers, mirrors, table settings, small figurines, to huge glass sculptures.  The chandeliers were my favorite, they are so meticulously created, having to be completely balanced on all sides, a perfect harmony of calculation and imagination.  I will have one of these in my future home.  After our visit to the first shop we went around the island, all the shops sold Murano glass.  The people of the island are very prideful of their heritage and the legacy of glassware they have created.

After Murano, we took the public boat bus to Burano.  All the buildings in Burano are painted bright colors like orange, pink, green, yellow, blue.  The buildings reminded me of being in a tropical place.  We walked around the island, checked out a lot of stores, some which had lace dating back as late as the1800s.  There was so much beautiful lace!

No comments:

Post a Comment

ShareThis