April 8, 2013

  • Burano and Murano (Venice)

    I do love living near to Venice! I've been very lucky in that it's been easy to get to Venice from all three places I've lived in Italy: Trento, Brescia and Udine. So, I've been quite a regular visitor to Venice over the past few years, and especially this year when I have started to go as regularly as possible to St George's Anglican church too. But, whilst I have returned to most of the major sights over the years, I hadn't been back to the islands of Burano and Murano since 1998, the first time I went to Venice at all, with my family.

    Yesterday I took the opportunity to take a trip there. I had the Venice museum pass which is valid for 6 months. Bought it in October so it was about to run out, and I still had the Museum of Glass on Murano and the Museum of Lace on Burano to do, as well as the 3 museums in St Mark's Square. So, I invested in a 12 hour boat pass (rather an extortionate amount for that, but it did allow me to do everything) and having done a quick hop to St George's for the 10.30am service, I got myself across to Murano.

    Murano, famous for its glass, is a pretty little island, but architecturally not that different from the main part of Venice. The glass sculptures scattered around are striking though, and of course seeing a glassblower at work is fascinating too. I didn't actually do that this time, but I still have vivid memories from the time we did, back in 1998! Anyway I enjoyed wandering around and seeing some different things.

    The highlight for me though was revisiting Burano. I literally had no recollection of this place at all! In fact I'll be fascinated to see our family trip photos when home to see if it really was the same. It must have been, of course, but I didn't remember it at all. Very sweet colourful houses, all painted different colours and making a very striking and charming effect. Loved it! 


    The boat to get back to the mainland took what felt like hours,but it was a lovely day and I enjoyed getting windswept on the top deck of the boat. Spent a long time all day on boats which seemed to go very slowly indeed, but it was enjoyable because the weather was fine! I was also able to squeeze in the 3 St Mark's museums and see the usual familiar old sights...

     

     

    ...and still manage to be back in Udine by 9pm...at which point I smashed a large bottle of olive oil on the kitchen floor, and spent the next couple of hours cleaning up the mess. Not such a good finish, but a great day overall.

    Oh and today I became an auntie again :) Delighted to have a niece as well as a nephew now :)