One of our days in Venice was spent island hopping. We hitched a ride on the vaporetto and stopped at the cemetery island because, among running and wine, Katie and I also share an interest in gravestones and other macabre things. As it turns out, we inherited this notion from our mothers. Hers liked to do rubbings of particularly poetic sayings that she found.
My entire family once got locked inside a cemetery after closing hours and my Dad had to climb over the gates to find someone to let us out!
This really was a cemetery ISLAND. That's it, nothing but graves. When you build a town in the mud flats, dry land is hard to come by and you can't afford to spend any of it on dead people. In fact, we observed them exhuming some graves while we looked on. Of course, they frowned when we tried to take a picture. Apparently, they will retrieve the bones to stack together in a crypt and then leave the burial plots to the next generations.
And on we went to Murano, the island of fine hand blown glass.
Actually, Murano is not one but about a half dozen different islands connected by bridges, similar to Venice. In 1291, all the glass makers from Venice were forced to move to Murano due to fear of fire caused by their furnaces. Murano glass is protected by the government in that only glass makers from the island are allowed to use a certain trade mark to protect their products from counterfeiting.
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| There are many glass sculptures on the island |
I absolutely love the stereotypical hanging laundry found all over Venice and its sister islands. The entire island is so colorful and the drying clothes are like pretty necklaces decorating the Italian "Painted Ladies". We had a great lunch with wine served from a carafe and glasses which we believe were 'discards' from one of the glass factories. If only we had room to bring them home with us!
This little girl was having a sip of the fresh water that you find in fountains on all the islands. Does she know how beautiful she is? Probably. She IS Italian.
And on to Burano, the island of lace and VERY brightly colored buildings....The remarkable point is that with all the sunshine that these buildings get, they have to be faded! Maybe that is THE point? Regardless we enjoyed strolling around and managed to come home with Murano glass and Burano lace (dress) as gifts.
I can never resist a Peppy cat! Where to next, Katie?
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| This way! |
