A canal in Murano, Italy - click to enlarge
The thing I like most about Venice was Murano.
Okay, so really Murano is a separate island to Venice altogether so what I have said is not entirely accurate. We did visit both places in the same day and I liked Murano the best. I have always like Art Glass and Murano is a glass lovers heaven. Sweden is another region that produce Glass in forms I enjoy however for today I am talking about Murano Glass. One day a visit to Sweden is in order, perhaps whilst seeing Norway?
When I used to be in the antiques and collectibles game Murano glass was a popular item. Pristine pieces would bring a good price in the shop or at Auction. Now having visited Murano Island, I can see why. The price on anything half decent was big and consistently so. You could not walk around the corner and find a same or similar piece at 50% off or the like. It’s as if they have a perfectly organised price cartel in glass works. Seconds didn’t seem to exist or sales…Items on sale would be chinese knock offs at 10% of the price of originals and usually clearly marked as not Murano. About 10 years ago the chinese started to copy the most popular Murano designs and flooded the market with cheap knock offs of Fish and Roosters etc. Many shops made the point of displaying signage stating that nothing in there business was imitation.
Murano Island itself was much like Venice, just a lot less crowded. It has the same pretty waterways, lovely boats , beautiful buildings and no mad crazy swarm of multinational tourists buzzing from here to there. It was lovely to walk around.
Crowds near the landing point for Piazza San Marco - click to enlarge
Now don’t get me wrong, Venice is also a lovely place, It just happened to be flooded with people, many people, many many people. Being summer holidays time in Europe didn’t help.
The Grand canal was Grand and The Piazza San Marco and it’s Basilica were impressive. I also enjoyed my first ever Gondola ride with Joy which was lovely, fun and still romantic even with the girls along for the ride.
