Murano and Burano
Today was our last day in Venice and we ventured out to the nearby islands of Murano and Burano. At breakfast we met a couple who had traveled to Rochester a number of times and specifically to the George Eastman House which is 3 blocks from our home. They recommended a great place to eat so we had the hotel staff reserve a table for us this evening. We had a tour booked but it didn’t start until 2 PM so after breakfast we spent the morning in the beautiful hotel garden. Itwas supposed to be cool and rainy today but to our surprise the sun was out and the temperature was quite pleasant. We have been so fortunate to have had such fantastic weather for the entire trip. The one article of clothing I never used was my raincoat.
We left the hotel and traveled by water bus down to St Mark’s Square where we met our guide Alissia near “the man on the horse statue”. That is actually how locals refer to it.
We were thrilled to find that our tour ended up just us with Alessia. We enjoyed a private tour for the price of a public one. At the nearby boat dock we boarded a water taxi that sped through the choppy nwater to Murano in about 20 minutes, a trip that would take considerably longer on the crowded water bus. Murano is known for glassmaking. Our stop there was at a well known glassmaking shop where we got to watch the master glassblowers working on vases and drinking glasses. It was a bit unnearving having them carry the molten glass on the long tubes just behind us. I didn’t make a quick motions.
Afterwards we got to walk through the studio’s showroom where the have hundreds of pieces on display, some costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, many by artists who no longer work.I loved some of the works modeled after Picasso paintings. The artist who made them had worked directly with Picasso. I ended up taking a few photos in the gallery before I realized I wasn’t supposed to be taking photos. The man who acted as our guide at the studio apologized to me saying he forgot to let me know that photos were not allowed. We ended up purchasing some hand blown drinking glasses and a little vase. While I spent way more than I intended I didn’t purchase anything extravagant.
We met up with Alissia again at the end of our gallery stop and left Murano for a 20 minute water taxi ride to Burano. Burano is famous for its detailed lace that is hand stitched with a needle and fine cotton thread. Burano was a fishing village until about 25 years ago but fishing has mostly died out. Lacemaking is still done but there are very few young people who are learning to do it., so it too may die out. We watched one woman making a lace horse about the size of my hand she had been working on for 2 weeks. She said she had been making lace for 70 years and and started when she was 10. The small shop also has a display of antique lace made in Burano. I ended up purchasing a small lace butterfly here that I will mount and frame.
A few shops down from the lace store is a small bakery that is famous for their Venetian cookies shaped like an S. You can find the cookies all over Venice but they are all bakes at this bakery Alissia purchased some for us to try. They were quite tasty and are bringing a few home to share.
The houses in Burano are all painted in unique bright colors. Legend has it that fishermen used it to find their way home after fishing and too much drinking. We walked around the village and since it was later afternoon with great light, we were able to get some great photos.
On our boat ride back to Venice, Alissia gave us some of the history on the smaller islands in the Venice lagoon. Some had half destroyed buildings and I wondered why they were used for. She explained that these buildings were used to quarantine crews from trade ships when Venice was a primary trading port. After dealing with multiple outbreaks of plague, the city required ship crews to stay on one of the islands for 40 days prior to coming into Venice to make sure they were free from illness. We learned that the 40 days came from Jewish history and the term forty (quaranta in Italian) is the origin of the word quarantine.
Since we were the only people on the tour Alissia had the water taxi driver drop us off closer to our hotel and she then walked us through some of the Venice back alleys to our hotel so we wouldn’t be late for our dinner. We said our goodbyes just outside our hotel garden. We have had a number of excellent guides on this trip. Alissia was one of the best.
We had an hour or so to put our feet up before dinner at an excellent and quite inexpensive restaurant called Alla Veda, just a few steps from our hotel. The food and wine were excellent. Alissia kenw of the restautrant and told us to not miss the meatballs. She was right.
After dinner we walked a few blocks down the main thoroughfare. I propbably mentioned previpously that there are no vehicles, bicycles or skateboards allowed in Venice - it is pretty crowded with just pedestrians, besides the streets are very narrow and there are 800 bridges with steps. We did a little window shopping and then stopped for one last gelato before heading back to the hotel to finish packing for home. We stopped in the hotel garden to finish our gelato and enjoy a few more minutes in this lovely setting.
Tomorrow we had home. While it is sad to leave, we are ready to be home.