Burano's colourful houses. Photo courtesy of Lachlan.
On Monday we met up with our new friends, Lachlan and Mariano, for a day exploring Murano and Burano! These two islands can be accessed by ferry from Venice. Murano is famous for its glass-making, and Burano for its colourful houses and lace-making. None of us had been to these islands before.
En route to Murano...
Photo courtesy of Lachlan.
Murano...
Many shop windows were filled with amazing glass creations.Barovier & Toso are one of the largest glass-makers on Murano.We were amazed by the huge variety of glass creations on offer.The glass swan here is about 1cm high!A glass orchestra......and glass critters.There were also plenty of fantastic chandeliers, but this is the only one I took a photo of.We ate our sandwiches in a campo (square) beside the canal in Murano. Then Mariano and the boys played chess! Photo courtesy of Lachlan.
0:00
/0:12
This busker was incredible!!
Murano has its own canals and bridges, but no gondolas.Muranese seagull washing its feet.In the afternoon we did a glass art workshop. This took about half an hour, and we were able to collect our finished items an hour later. The boys and Lachlan made keyrings, B made cufflinks and I made a magnet. Mariano sorted glass pieces for us and took photos (including this one)!Photo courtesy of Lachlan.B's cufflinks-to-be. We had to place our chosen glass pieces into these rings using tweezers (or our fingers).My magnet-to-be.Photo courtesy of Mariano.We got to go out the back of the shop and see how they heat the glass items to 750°C by putting graphite-lined refractory clay containers into microwaves.B's red-hot cufflinks...... rapidly cooling!While waiting for our glass artworks to be ready, we went on a quest for Mariano-approved gelato. My cinnamon cookie flavour ended up being my top gelato pick from our time in Italy!Here are the finished products! B's cufflinks......and (L-R) J's keyring, my magnet and F's keyring!Photo courtesy of Lachlan.
Murano to Burano ferry ride...
The chess games continued!
Burano...
It was a beautiful time of day to be there, when most of the tourists had already left.I read that the colourful houses were originally because the fishermen of Burano were worried they wouldn't be able to find their houses in the frequent fog.We found the leaning tower of... Burano!
And back to Venice...
Takeaway pasta and fried seafood before parting ways.F's spaghetti Bolognese, J's fried calamari and my shrimp and mushroom pasta. Yummy!
It was a thoroughly enjoyable day!
PS. We are regularly walking 8-10km per day, but this day blew our previous record out of the water. According to B's Google Fit, we walked more than 15km!
