Day 3 Murano & Burano

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Today’s tour is to the outer islands of Murano & Burano. Both outlying islands are part of the city of Venice. As the influx of people increased the Venetians decided to move all glass blowing industries to Murano to cut down on chance of fires. A short demonstration was fascinating and made to look way too easy. The skill of artists like this (Elke said he looked like Nick Nolte) are a treat to watch. The other islands would have been used for different purposes ie industries, monasteries, farms and one was used to treat lepers. After wandering around the glass showroom (no pictures allowed) we returned to our shuttle and headed to Burano which is known for it’s lace.

Paula gave us a demonstration of how lace was made. (I had no idea that each thread was done by hand). Paula has been doing this since she was 10 and is a 63 year veteran AND was doing it so fast it was hard to follow. Each of these sections follows a pattern and then is joined like a quilt. The last supper took a little over 1 year to make.

So we get back on our tour boat and had the choice of going back to the ship or to get dropped off at San Marco square. We chose San Marco square to hunt for a laptop battery charger (cause of the blog delay). Half way to the electronic store behind the square, Elke packed it in and returned to the ship on the Celebrity shuttle. 35 degrees, no breeze and high humidity. This was my screw up so off I went to keep my awaiting audience happy.

Back to the ship to get ready for dinner at Ocean Liners (one of the specialty restaurants).

Tomorrow the ship docks at Koper, Slovenia.

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Photos

glass
starting off with a blob of molten glass

Adding colour
placing some glass beads (from the tray on the table) and then rolling the molten glass over the beads

Adding Red
Another lass master picks up a piece of red coloured glass and they add the piece to the top of the glass bowl.

Fluting the glass
once the blown glass is opened the tube is swung in a big arc to shape the flutes in the bowl.

Glassware
no photos allowed here

Paula
the last supper is under glass behind her

Wedding dress
2 years to make this. This makes tying the ropes on the USS Constitution look ridiculously easy. Terry knows what I am talking about.

Perfano (we think)
Pine nuts, almonds raisins etc in a butter tart flavour that was like nougat

Comments

[NIgel]

Great photos - keep 'em coming
Looks like you guys are having a great trip!