Avventura Felice 2012: Glass and Lace

Next day was more promising and we returned to Venice and to see the glass making centers on Murano Island and the lace making centers on Burano Island. Our first stop was Murano. It was interesting getting there. It is clear that Venice lagoon is fairly shallow, because everywhere you could see seaweed beds and when the tide was low you could see lots of areas where the waves were breaking just over the bottom. The traffic lanes for boat travel are all marked by pylons with lights atop them. There was one lane for each direction just like on a regular road.

We didn’t get very far on Murano, as after we past a few shops we saw one that had some really beautiful things that we wanted to look at. Once we got in there a salesman took us up to their show rooms where some very wonderful pieces were found. As in all Italian buildings it was like entering a tardus. Turn a corner, and a whole new vista opens up to you. There were some magnificent pieces there and equally magnificent price tags to match. Here are some pictures of what we saw.

"Roadway" heading to Murano - note the big white fluffy clouds and brilliant blue sky

- it didn't stay that way!!

Massive chandelier - over 2000 pieces needed to create it

Pelican family

Perot and Pierette - classic Venetian characters

Glass birds of all colours

Church on Murano Island

Glass furnaces of Murano Island

Next we were going to watch some glass being produced, but the person who had been showing us around suggested that we head to Burano Island to see it while the sun was still shinning as rain was expected. They had a customer there who they were providing with a free taxi ride to Burano, so we were able to travel with them. When we got to Burano we were taken on a “tour” of a lace “factory”. In fact what we saw was one woman, making Burano lace, and the rest of the tour was of the different types of lace available, that was hand made. Burano lace is all hand made with 100 weight thread and needle. 100 weight is very thin thread for those who are not familiar with thread weight. A 30 weight thread is what we would generally use for most of our casual stitching needs at home. According to our tour guide there are only 8 women making Burano lace today.

Here are some pictures from Burano. The island was just magical. The sun was shining, the houses are all coloured brightly, the streets are wide, there is no motor traffic, and small canals interconnect across the island.

This all came to an end about 2:30, when the skies opened up and the rain poured down steadily. We headed back to Venice and to our hotel to dry out and warm up.

Here is St Michael's Island, the cemetery island