murano, burano

On Saturday, I woke up to a lot of buon compleanno (happy birthday) wishes from all the hotel staff because someone asked for help making dinner reservations and informed them I was turning a year older. It was fun. Staying in the small hotel was really nice, everyone called you by name; I assume it was much like staying in a bed and breakfast.

After taking the water bus down the Grand Canal, we hopped another bus (of course water bus... there are no cars, bikes or really any mode of transport other than your feet in Venice) to visit the islands of Murano and Burano.

Murano is known for its glass making. There were endless shops filled with glass... and some not so cheap! Numerous buildings had FORNACE painted on them because they housed the kiln for the making. We didn't watch any glass be blown but it was still interesting to visit. Side note: On the way to Murano, we passed the cemetery. It's only reachable by boat from Venice. We actually saw a small boat carrying a casket from Venice to the cemetery entrance... which I found more interesting than most I'm sure. I just kept thinking, what a different lifestyle? But it's how they've done things for years! I have really enjoyed being able to experience how many "everyday" what I'd call "normal" activities are done in other places. Like taking a casket on a boat for a funeral service.

After a couple hours on Murano, we decided to hop the bus over to Burano, the fisherman's village island known for its lace making. We didn't do much lace shopping but just roamed the streets for an hour looking at all the brightly colored houses. The whole village was like this! It sort of felt like you were on a movie set.

When we returned to the hotel, we planned to have one last spritz on the terrace before our early morning departure, but I was surprised to find a bottle of Prosecco, basically Italian champagne (but remember you can't use the word champagne when it's outside of Champagne France), compliments of the hotel. So we sipped on that instead before making our dinner reservation and eating our weight in seafood!

When can we go back?