Visiting Murano

On Friday Kurt and I took the vaparetto to the island of Murano. This small island just off of Venice is the mecca of glassblowing. The small streets along each canal are loaded with glass shops and fornaces. We strolled in and out, admiring the beautiful pieces and speaking with the store owners, sales people and artists.
We were able to see some demonstrations inside some of the fornaces. We watched a man pull and press molten glass and within about 45 seconds it became a horse. This spectacle was more for the tourist’s amazement than it was in making a beautiful piece of artwork, but alas, we were all pretty impressed.
Best of all we went into the Murano Glass Museum where there was an impressive collection of ancient glass, old tools and tons of information about the process. The curator’s cards were so informative that I begged a museum employee to copy them for me (so that I wouldn’t be tempted to steal them!) As is the Italian way, they happily obliged and I am very grateful for all the information they shared! Graci!
Eventually, Kurt and I headed back to Venice, totally wiped from a day of strolling and staring at all the artwork. We decided a gondola ride would cap off our day perfectly. We leave Italy on Saturday and head to Vienna to visit with Sawyer’s cousin Carmen and her husband Joshua. We are thrilled to catch up with them and visit their new home town.

Sorry no pictures for this post yet! Our camera is packed in our bag at the moment! Will post pictures later.