Today we escaped Venice proper to two of the nearby islands, Murano and Burano. When we checked in to the Palazzo Stern in Venice the Desk mentioned that the glass makers in Murano were going out of business due to the flood of inexpensive glass from other parts of the world. We had planned to visit the islands on previous trips, never made it, and the comments prompted us to make the journey this time.
Murano is the noted glass making island in the Venetian Lagoon, the glass makers were forced to re-locate here from Venice over fears of fire. Schiavon Glass gave us a great tour where we got a great demonstration of glass blowing. True artists here, made glass blowing look easy. We asked the guide on how the local glass market was fairing and he confirmed that the lower end glass makers were in trouble but the higher end makers like them were ok, the pieces they make were too complex to be knocked off easily. So they felt ok, we shall see how long this lasts.
After Murano we moved over to the island of Burano, noted for its lace making and colorful buildings. Easily our favorite island, we all agreed we liked the industry (glass) on Murano but all liked the laid back feel of Burano better. A great break after the hustle of Venice.
Done, back to that busy city. We were going to take the Vaporetto back around Venice to our hotel however Sydney insisted we walk back. This was across the widest part of Venice and although the city is small the ‘street’ layout can provide quite the challenge to navigate which it did. Lots of exercise going back and forth thru the ‘roads’, up & down over the bridges. Oops wrong turn… Try this way…
Academia Bridge from the Grand Canal.
The Ladies on the boat ride out.
Beautiful downtown Murano.
An artist at work.
More of of Murano.
Tom and Syd in Burano.
Burano
Burano
Borano
