Day 17: Murano Island

You can't come to Venice without running across Murano Glass. Every other shop in Venice has some for sale. All the chandeliers in the hotels are Murano Glass, or at least Venetian glass--or maybe Chinese copies of Venetian glass, who knows? At any rate, we decided to go to the source--Murano Island.

We took the vaporetto--Venetian water bus--to Murano Island. Crowded and hot--just like a city bus in any other city, except we were zipping across water instead of hot asphalt.

Ashore on Murano, we headed to the glass factories. Venice forced all the glass factories to move to Murano in the 1200's as a fire prevention measure. Over the centuries, the glass makers have perfected their craft, making Murano glass famous (and expensive) world-wide. August is vacation month in Italy, so most of the glass factories were closed.

We did find one glass maker working and giving a demonstration of his craft. He moved incredibly fast, and in a few minutes blew a glob of molten glass into a pitcher, formed the base, decorated it with some ornate curves of glass and formed the handle.

Next, he used a pliers-like instrument to pinch little peaks on the side of a glob of glass on the end of his pole, and then almost like magic, used his pliers to pull those bumps of glass into the head, legs, and tail of a glass horse. Then he gently moved the legs and tail so that the horse was rearing up on his hind legs and tail with his front hooves in the air and his mane flying. Incredibly fast and entertaining!

Murano is almost a ghost town this time of year, with most of the residents gone on vacation. Where do people who live on an island go to vacation--the mountains, maybe?

A kayak race in the lagoon off Murano Island.

A showroom on Murano with beautiful pieces for sale in an amazing variety of styles and colors. Wouldn't let us take any photos of course. And we did manage to pick up a couple of pieces as souvenirs--but in the shops in Venice, not on Murano.

Another vaporetto arrives on Murano with tourists eager to see how Murano glass is made.

On the way back from Murano, we stopped at Fondamenta di Nove, one of the "bus" stops, for a little al fresco lunch. We found a breezy, cool little sidewalk cafe on the water--a nice distance from the hordes of tourists and the heat of the noon-day sun in Venice. My caprese salad. The Italian tomatoes are so delicious this time of year, and I can't seem to get enough caprese and bruschetta pomodoro!

This is a Venetian ambulance. Everything moves by water here!

After a nap, we are ready for dinner. Ristorante Sempione was just across the canal from our hotel. The courtly white-haired waiter assured us this was "real Italian food."

Interior of Sempione. Classical Italian ristorante with waiter in white coats and ties. Very traditional.

This restaurant was on a smaller canal, but a busy one. Approximately 40 gondolas passed our table as we dined. 

See the gondolier over my right shoulder standing between two red poles? That is our hotel room just above the gray column. Very old, very quaint, and right on the canal.

A great locally produced merlot without the bite of some California merlots.

Jumbo shrimp cocktail. Their "cocktail sauce" is spicy mayonnaise.

Tim had pasta e fagioli. This version was more like a stew compared to the clear broth version we find at Olive Garden. This was better!

For the main course, we both had risotto with mixed seafood. The food at Sempione was definitely Italian and very good, but not great. We have found in Venice that it is hard to find bad food, but it is also hard to find outstandingly good food. Maybe tomorrow for Tim's birthday dinner.....

After dinner, back to Piazza San Marco for a little night music and a cognac.

The live music inspired some patrons to dance in the piazza.

It was a very global experience. Two boys from Texas with a house in Costa Rica, sipping French cognac in a 1,200 year-old Italian piazza anchored by an even older Byzantine cathedral, listening to a Johann Strauss waltz played by a quintet from the Czech Republic while Asian and German tourists snapped photos with their digital cameras. Pretty amazing!