First Day in Venice and Murano

For those of you who don’t know, Venice and Murano, Italy are two island cities situated in the Venetian Lagoon that is located at the far northern end of the Adriatic Sea. They are built on a series of mud flat islands with canals running through them like highways and bridges to connect the neighborhoods. The energy of Venice and Murano is very different from the other cities I have visited while in Italy because there are only two ways to get around and they are by boat or by walking.



Venice was once a great trade and shipping port and grew very prosperous and showed its wealth by building gorgeous palaces along the many canals that worm their way through the city. Venice grew in a very organic manner and the streets are so confusing that it can be maddening finding your way through the city.

For my first day in Venice, I decided to walk the less traveled sections of the city with one of my beadmaking friends Nicole from Switzerland, who flew down to Venice to hang out with me for a few days. When you stay out of the tourist sections of Venice, you get a very different feel from the city. Many of the streets we were on had very few people on them because rather than huge groups of tourists clogging the narrow lanes, there was just a scattering of locals making their way home.



As we made our way through the sometimes tiny streets of Venice, we found humble, beautiful old neighborhood churches and stairways to boarded up buildings that are speckled with moss and plants that give it a dreamy, lost-in-time appearance.

Another charming thing that you find as you wander through these parts of Venice is all the small shrines to the Madonna and Child and different Catholic saints. You find these peppered all through Venice and Murano and in fact I saw them in all the Italian cities I visited. There are often fresh flowers placed at these tiny shrines, showing that the neighborhoods really care for these little treasures.



Our last stop on our way back to Murano was Vittorio Costantini’s shop where he makes the most outstanding lampworked fish, birds, sea creatures and bugs. Vittorio’s shop is only s few blocks from where you pick up the bus boat (vaperetto) to Murano.

Vittorio regaled us with huge glass beetles that looked real and many other beautiful glass art objects for which he is world famous. It is always a joy to visit with Vittorio and marvel at how much he gets done in the tiny space that is his showroom and work area. If you ever get the chance, by all means go see Vittorio and all his marvelous work.