Saturday, September 4, 2010

Murano

MURANO

Up dawnish, brekkers of OJ, strong Italian coffee, Gorgonzola, Prosciutto and sweet buns, then off by vaporetto to the tour terminal for a boat tour of Murano, Burano and Torcello.

Murano, of course is the home of the famous Venetian glass blowers. Venice exiled them centuries ago to their own island to cut down on the fires they caused in the city. The 9:30 tour left at 9:30 so if you arrived at 9:31 you were out of pocket 20E. At Burano, we were treated to a demonstration of glass blowing around a 1000C furnace, then released into the sales room for 20 minutes. Some souvenirs accreted to my load for the day. BTW, Murano glass is cheaper from a sidewalk vendor almost anywhere, than it is at the factory in Murano proper.

Then off to Burano, the next island, home to the fishing fleet and their wives, the lace makers and mask-makers (more souvenirs) for the famous Carnavale.

Finally, we arrived at Torcello where the first Venetians settled in the seventh century and hid on the island from marauders. There was a short delay in landing while four angry tour boats explained (with much arm-waving) to the enormous British yacht why he couldn’t park at the ferry dock.

A 12th C church was in the offing but we settled for Panchettas and chips for lunch. Back on the boat and return to San Marco, where we trudged to the museum for a quick visit.

Since all of Venice is a museum (60,000 residents, 20,000,000 visitors annually), the museum in the Piazza San Marco itself seemed curiously ill-organized and extremely handicap unfriendly. Eventually we had to give up and retrace our steps to the entrance to escape since there didn't seem to be any logical route to an exit.  Home by vaporetto at 2PM (all stores closed till 3 or 4), beer, cigar, terrace, Blog. No WiFi again. Owner apologized and offered nominal PayPal refund.

Feet up, switch off. Prepare for supper and a stroll on Via Garibaldi in the evening for some Italian shoes (oh-oh!) and serenades by the singers at the local café


Finished product


Leaning church at Burano



Lace maker in action




We bought our mask from its maker.





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1 comment:

  1. Sorry about the ill-placed picture titles. Still a little shaky on using Blogger.

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