Murano

Allan and I took the hotel-provided water taxi to the collection of small islands of Murano  in the Venetian Lagoon on this beautiful clear morning.  After an already long and interesting history, in 1291 Murano became the center for glass making in Venice when all of the glass makers in Venice were forced to move to Murano.  This move was because of the abundance of wood powered furnaces in use and the consequent risk of fire in Venice proper.

When we exited the taxi, we were ushered into a factory for a demonstration and given a tour of the showroom.  When it became clear that we did not intend to purchase, we were ushered out of the door!  As we proceeded down the main street of town we came upon a family-owned operation, Schiavon, where we again saw stunning chandeliers, vases, jewelry and other small items, large abstract figures.  After purchasing a lavender-colored gondola, we were invited to see the glass factory at work and given an “upstairs” tour of the showroom.  Ultimately we bought a set of glasses and matching pitcher inspired by Miro and designed by our new best friend.

We continued to window shop up and down the main street, venturing down a tree lined boulevard for lunch and on to the vaparetto for the short ride back to the mainland of Venice.

Connie and Clay met us for our afternoon visit to the Peggy Gugenheim Museum.  After finding the vaparetto stop we worked hard to get a ticket from the machine, but were thwarted at every try.  SO we hopped on the next boat that came along anyway.  Just as we were getting off of the boat, three people in uniform asked for our tickets.  No explaining would sway their statement that we each needed to pay a heft fine in addition to our 7.5 euro vaparetto ticket.  After missing our stop and ending up on the wrong side of the canal arguing with them, we finally paid the fine and walked back to the museum.  I suspect that this will be our last trip on the vaparetto!  The museum was great.  It is housed in what was her residence and at the entrance to each room are photos of the art and furniture as it was when she lived in the home, right on the Grand Canal.  The collection included paintings by Picasso, Klee, Miro, Dali, Chagall, Magritte, and many other artists I did not recognize.  Some of our favorites…

We had a 26 minute walk back to the hotel, but that was preferable to the vaparetto.  It was actually a pleasant walk since the later afternoon brought a nice breeze and somewhat cooler temperatures.  Just before the hotel, we stopped for a spritz (or 2) and visited with a family from Southern California.  Our tour of the Grand Canal (postponed from last night) left at 8 and it was glorious!  We went up the canal, past the train station, several small islands, the cruise ship port, out to St. Mark’s Square where we had good sightings of the Bridge of Sighs and big hotels along the lagoon, back into the Grand Canal and back to the hotel.  What a beautiful way to see the city–by water at sunset.

Since there was no time for dinner before the tour, we found Trattoria de Pepi  near the hotel and each had a small dish to fuel our famished bodies so we could sleep.  Allan and his cuttlefish ink pasta created an abstract painting on the tablecloth.  We thought it as good or better than many we’ve seen.  It was a busy, but very fun day!