Portogruaro, Venice Islands

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A lot was planned for today so we were up at 6.30am to get the 7.35 train to Venice which is a one hour journey. On arrrival we bought a one day ticket for the ferries for the day. Since we weren't there to visit Venice, the first ferry we got was to the island of Murano to see glassware and glass blowing which the island is famous for. Needless to say 4 out of 5 shops has glassware. Some was good, some very good and some just tacky. Diego is keen on a chandalier for his house and there's plenty to choose from but the problem is to keep from being tacky, overdone or too gothic. Simple is better. We visited a glass blowing factory and had to wait in a queue in the sun to get in. Very hot. Then it was hot inside too because of the furnaces. It had objects similar to that at Hoglunds in Nelson and was informative. We also watched someone making mirrors, etching patterns in glass with a diamond tip, and making glass jewellry. I was not tempted to buy.
We then visited the Glass Museum which is a must. It covered the history of glass making in the area and had fine examples of glassware from Roman times to recent. I have to say that much of the ealier stuff was better than what is being produced now. Recent glassware lacks the detail and lightness of earlier objects. In fact, like some of the art we saw the other day, it seems to be the bizarre that represents this age. It was surprising what was being produced in Roman times with much more primitive tools.
While on Murano we also visited the church of San Donato, noted for it's mosaic floor of various rock types - like patchwork quilting done with rocks.
After some lunch by the lighthouse at Murano, we got the ferry across to Burano where Diego tried to negotiate a boat for the visit to the monastery at San Francesco Del Deserto. After negotiations broke down on E30 he settled for E10 with another boatman. We were met at the monastery by a monk called Paulo who we ended up calling 'Paulo of the fast feet' as he departed our small group of 5 very quickly when a boatload of women arrived. They were much more lucritive than us and him being one of 7 men they likely made a nicer picture. Despite that he gave us a good commentary of the the monastery which Diego kindly and expertly delivered to us in English. (Where would we be with out him?)
Unbeknownist to me at the time, this monastery is the one founded by St Francis of Assissi of whom I have a statue on our patio at home. He came to the island from north Africa with the Venetians, hence the Del Deserto (from the desert). Despite Paulo sciving off in a hurry, we had been given a good overview of the monestry and surroundings. It is a very peaceful and tree filled island with brick buildings going back to the 1200's which have been added on and built over, over time.
Back to Burano to get another ferry to Torcello to a sparsely populated island with an ancient byzantine cathedral on it. I doubt that it is used much given it's location. However, it has some of the best architecture we've seen. The floor is a beautiful rock mosaic of various colours and at each end are enormous mosaics of many types of scenes done in very small tiles. There are unusual steps behind the alter which the "head sharang" would have sat up the top of with the lesser priests sitting on either side slightly below. The alter was in front of them. Good knows how the congregation could see what was going on. Outside the church is a large stone throne that Attila the Hun is supposed to have sat upon. Disey the Daft had her photo sitting on the same seat.
Back to Burano again. This time to walk around the town for a while to view the lace making, the canals and the wonderfully coloured houses in green, blue, pink, purple, teal, you name it. They were painted thus in order to be seen when the fog closes in.
From here, it was 'get your skates on' to get to ferries and back to the train station in Venice. We speed walked back to the ferry from Murano to Fondamenta Nuova on the main island, and did 'dodgems' through the crowds to the main station. Whew! But we made the connection and returned to Portogruaro by 9pm.

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Photos

Houses on Burano Island
The coloured houses and canal of Burano Island