We caught our first Vaporetto out to Murano, and arrived there at just after 9 o'clock. In our normal lives, 9 o'clock is bustling and all action. In Murano, the town was just waking up, with streets still quiet. Some of the shops had just started to open their doors. We followed a pretty straightforward path to the Fondamente Manin, which seemed to be the main tourist street, stopping in at various stores to ogle the beautiful glasswork. The glasswork was obscenely expensive, but we did find a small glass jewellery store, where I bought Hugh some glass cufflinks and myself some blue glass earings. After making our purchases we headed towards the glass factories and parted with some more of our euro to see a glass blowing demonstration.
It was very interesting to see how quickly the glass makers could manipulate the heated up glass to create their design. We watched a glassblower turn a heated round bulb to a stallion in a matter of minutes, plucking out the design as if the horse already existed, and he was merely helping it to find its proper shape.
 |
| 'Natale di luce inn una cometa di vetro' |
I hoped to buy a glass magnet (magnets are my thing when I travel) from a stall on our way out, but sadly did not have the correct change. We were fast learning in Italy that everyone expects you to have the correct change, but nobody wants to give you any change. It was a bit of a catch when buying things, but it did limit my spending, so I guess it was good in a way.
Our next stop was colourful Burano, so it was back on the number 12 ferry again for a 20 minute trip to the Northern parts of the lagoon.
 |
| Bright Burano |
Immediately we walked into the side streets of Burano, eager to see how far we could follow the trail of colour until it stopped, imagining what it would be like to live in such a place where even the buildings were dressed cheerfully.
In the back streets of Burano there were no other tourists, but plenty of fat cats stretched out on stone pathways, soaking up the sun.
 |
| Cat in Burano |
As everyone else rushed around, probably spurred on by dazzling colours, we slowed our pace. The sheer beauty of Burano seemed to ask us to stop and savour the moment. For lunch we ate € 5 pizza rolls of eggplant and zuchini in the main street, watching another plump feline demand attention of anyone who passed it by. It became seemingly personally affronted by anyone who declined to give it attention.
Our bellies full and with camera batteries on empty we took the number 12 back again to Venice to rest for a while.
In the later afternoon, nearing 4 o'clock, we made use of Unica card again (by now we had well and truly gotten our moneys worth from it) and took the number 1 Vaporetto down the grand canal to the Basilica Di Santa. From here we could look across the canal and see the hoardes of people still congregating around the San Marco area.
 |
| Basilica Di Santa |
The sun began to lower and we made our way back across the grand canal so Hugh could take photos of the red-streaked sunset over the Basilica Di Santa.
 |
| Sunset over the Basilica Di Santa |
To finish off our day, we stopped at the flooded crypt of San Zaccharia. Entry to the church San Zaccharia was free, with a €1.50 charge to go down in the crypt. The crypt was dark and smelt of stagnant water, but felt peaceful.
 |
| San Zaccharia flooded crypt |
Dinner was a quick affair of lasagne and fish on the way back to Palazzo Abadessa, on a total of 20000 steps.
No comments:
Post a Comment