My sister doing a glass-blowing internship in Murano, Italy and there being a night train between Vienna and Venice, I couldn't miss this opportunity of mixing sightseeing, glass-blowing and family reunion. After 12 hours trying to sleep as much as possible in the train, Venice now counts one more French tourist wandering its narrow streets.
I encourage you to spend an hour or two in the Venetian cemetery, the atmosphere is much different from the narrow busy streets from the other islands. The cemetery is its own island with a church and multiple "sections" for different faiths. It's huge, with several gardens and I can imagine it'd be even prettier in Spring or Fall season. I sadly couldn't enter the church as it was closed both times we tried to visit it.
It's actually very easy to get lost or spend a lot more time than expected when walking in Venice. We've tried multiple times to avoid the pedestrian highways which were already too crowded to my taste and flooded by shops, but most of the times we'd have to join them back as it often was the only option to go between small neighborhoods. Otherwise, the public transports are vaporettos, small boats. It is not cheap, sometimes crowded (even outside of the touristic season) and is rather slow, but hey, that's all you've got to visit other islands or go from one side to the other of the city.
Then I've got the chance to stay in my sister's employer's glass-blowing workshop for the afternoon. Like pottery or wood-working, glass-blowing is very soothing and I could spend hours watching the ballet of glass-blowers working on their piece.
Burano and Murano, Italy
11 March 2023
The next day, we visited Burano, another island in the Venetian Lagoon. It is known for its strikingly colorful houses and lace making. The lace museum is worth the quick sight to learn more about this art. I've been told during the touristic season that people actually make lace in the streets, but alas I wasn't there at the right time (well, I was for my taste, but not for seeing lace being made). Sadly the weather was a bit on the foggy side but it was nice enough for us to wander through its canals, bridges and streets.
To end the day, we walked on the riversides in Murano, the island where my sister worked and stayed. It is a very touristy island, mostly with glass-blowing workshops and shops. At night, it does feel like an abandoned city with its empty streets.
I obviously couldn't leave Murano without going to the Glass Museum. They also had a floor with a temporary exhibition from Simon Berger, with his pieces made by breaking glass. There's also a room where videos and documentation on the history of glass-blowing and how to blow glass are available.
For the last day, we visited the Doge's Palace before I'd take the night train back to Vienna.
