Venice, Italy Vacation 3 of 3
Our trip to Venice - Part 3
When I read about Venice, I learned that there are separate islands that consist of the Venestian Lagoon. Venice is the largest and the next largest after that is Murano. There used to be many handmade glass makers. The glass work throughout Venice is incredible. Our hotel recommended a tour/store to visit and even booked a private boat to bring us there.
When we arrived, we were given a brief lesson about glass and the trade, then allowed to visit their store. Oh my gosh - the works of art there AMAZING. It was so beautiful and my fingers itched to take a picture, but there were signs everywhere not to AND they had employees in every room watching you! (Though my husband did manage to get a quick video at one point, the rebel!)
My husband found the winged lion he really liked that has flecks of gold in it. We decided to buy it... the owner of the store put the lion on a pedestal... and the window behind it lit up the lion.. and through the window we could see the water. I wanted a picture of the lion. Right there. Right now. Right there in Venice, Italy. Right now where we could see the background. The owner said, “You can take a picture of it when you get home.” I said, “No, I want the picture, here in Italy where it was made, where we bought it.” My husband had already made the purchase and paid for the high price, I wanted the picture... and the owner knew it, could see it in my eyes, if we didn’t get the picture, he was going to lose the already sale. I got my picture!
Sadly, though, the same boat took us right back to the hotel! I wanted to see more of the island, but I don’t think the owners wanted us to shop around and see other places that might have been more reasonably priced. Word to the wise - take a Vaporetto there! But still worth it, because Murano was incredible. I also bought a delicate perfume bottle and necklace. Those were the expensive items we bought on the trip, otherwise it was tours and taking pictures.
It was a calmer day, kind of a break from yesterday’s long tour and perfectly timed. We still walked around a lot, found a nice restaurant for pizza, of course. We rested at the hotel in the early afternoon and opted to go to the square at night time. It was beautiful! The costume wearers were out in their glory, something about their silence and mystery mixed with the quiet of Venice in the dark - it really captures that romantic feeling you think of when thinking about Italy.
We had down days, no tours or real plans as well. Those were the days where we just walked around Venice and took pictures. We also found the book store I was interested in buying some old books from for mixed media art. There are certain times of the year that Venice will flood. The stores are used to this and have a step up to get into the stores or way to block the water from getting in. People, during the raining season, will wear rain boots and walk through the flooded areas. Fortunately, we didn’t have to worry about that. The book store had tubs and gondola’s filled with books for safe keeping. They had an outside staircase of books, which of course, we had to walk on too! We saw the cats of Venice at the bookstore. On our way back to the hotel, we took a peaceful, relaxing Gondola ride. Yes, I’ve heard that it’s operated by a mafia of sorts in Venice, but still... we had to!
Another separate island that we visited was Burano. It was said to have colorful painted houses. I figured it would be colorful houses just where you get off of the boat ride, but no, the entire island has different rainbow colors. There’s actually a rule that the house can’t be painted the same color as the ones right next to it! It was so pretty! I loved seeing the different pastels. It was like the buildings became flowers. It was even cute to see the laundry hanging out of the buildings to dry! I was happy just to walk around. It’s a different feeling than Venice; I recommend going here. Venice has some colorful buildings, but Burano is the color and charming island winner. I wasn’t expecting much from Burano and it turned out to be an absolute delight!
One another no tour day, we went to the Rialto Bridge. They had shops galore, expensive stuff. We opted to just walk the bridge, rather than stop with the shops on the bridge. A little further away, we found the perfume I bought. I wanted Italian perfume bought in Venice. Greg put his nose to the test as we sampled different perfumes to find one we could agree on.
One of the biggest highlights for me of the trip was the class that my parents paid for Roda and I to take.... to make our own glass pendants by way of glass and flame. My brother came with us, to make sure we didn’t get lost on the way to the class. It was held at an Italian guy’s home where he has a setup to do glasswork. You could tell he was a working artist, because the place was messy with glass all over. This was real life work for him, not just a lesson in a store.
He gave a brief introduction to what we would be making and then it was our turn. Roda told me to go first and I’m going to admit, I was nervous. I told the instructor that I’m not a fan of flames, but when I got up there, oh my gosh, it was so much fun! Rob took a video and you can see how focused I am. I loved making the pendant. It was fascinating to see how glass just melts in the fire and how you can create it into a different shape. I say fascinating to see, but I really mean fascinating to work on the glass. I see why someone would do this for a living. It’s beautiful and there’s a rhythm and flow to the liquid heated glass. You have to constantly keep turning the glass, on and off of the flame. If I could set up a work station like that in my art studio, I’d be doing glass work. It was incredible to make the pendant, glass wearable art! What an incredible memory! Greg said I glowed when I came back, such joy from the lesson.
It’s on this note that I’ll end the trip memories. I already posted what happened the last day of our trip and I won’t repeat it. There’s always something that goes wrong on a vacation, delayed flights, cancellations, bad weather, scary drives, health concerns (Mom’s health concern was the worst of those things going wrong, I’ll admit. We were all very scared! We were grateful to get her back home.)
It’s easy to get caught up in the negative, but if you let it cloud your life, you’ll never have the joyful memories to cherish. (Negativity is such a waste in life!). I’m grateful to be able to drop the negative, like a winter’s cloak and let these beautiful memories shine again. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for a trip of a lifetime, not just for me personally, but especially for your grandchildren!
Below are four links you can open for videos. Pictures follow below the links.
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