Murano and Burano, Italy

Murano island, located off Venice is world famous for its glass making. It is a tradition passed down since the 14th century and the artisans were moved to Murano to prevent fires on mainland Venice. We took a short boat ride from the hotel to one of the many factories on the island. I have never seen glass blowing before so this was pretty amazing to watch. The factory held a demonstration, whereby a small heated glass ball was formed into a horse in a matter of minutes. Pictures below sort of illustrate the process but I should have taken a video instead. It was over too quickly.

Using a large tweezer to shape the glass

The end product -a horse on its hind legs

Then, we were ushered into the main area where glass goods were sold. Here we saw a really large collection, from large animals, vases and figurine to mini glass souvenirs and glass jewellery. We were also lucky enough to be shown their private collection (not for sale, and no photos).  The picture below portrays a chariot with two horses and is priced at 20,000 Euros.

And the odd looking glass objects in the background are recreations of Picasso paintings, all very very expenisve.

We then took another boat and headed to Burano Island, which is a fishing village and also famous for its lace-making. You wil recognise this place by its multi coloured buildings. By the way, I forgot to mention that the heavens opened, and there was a heavy downpour on the second day. Just our luck, but it did not deter us from having fun. But since we were unprepared for this sudden change in weather, we had to purchase two umbrellas (which luckily also came in handy in the sweltering heat of Rome).

Burano also has canals

Tourist galore despite the rain

A seamstress in action. Apparently it takes three seamstresses to make that one lace, and the hand made lace will take up to three months to finish. I purchased a hand woven table runner with motives of grapes, which was reduced by about 40 percent in price. Even then, I still thought it was pricey, and I'm sure the shop still made a  big profit. The problem with all these touristy places is that the prices are probably marked so high, so that the tourists will feel that they were given a great bargain even at 50% off the original price. I guess you will never know what it is worth, but I guess it is OK if you are happy with the purchase and the amount seems reasonable to you. Just make sure you put on a thick skin and try out your haggling skills.

The heavy rain made it difficult to explore the island further, so we had a pit stop. On this holiday, it should be called the gelati-stop. Not a day went by that we did not have gelati... and it is starting to show on my hips, Haha. But well worth it.

Anyone would be forgiven if they thought this was a candy store. In fact, these are pastas! Of every possible shape and colours... probably a tourist trap. I haven't seen multi coloured pasta served in any restaurants.

As the rain continued, we decided to have a smallish lunch before heading back to Venice. We picked one of the trattorias in the main street and had a lovely platter of grilled fish, mussels cooked in white wine and fettucine with prawns and zucchini. Ahhh, delicious! Not as good as 40 Ladroni, but still really yumy.