Murano and Burano

This was our first excursion. An early start as we had to be at the theatre to get organized by 7:30. Marisa the ever organized had arranged for room service for 6:30. Wonderful breakfast and we were off. Venice is really a delta with many islands so the only way to get anywhere is by water taxi. So about 20 of us set off for Muranothis morning. Murrano is where they make the world famous artisan glass. We were fortunate to watch while one of the masters created a piece this morning. It was facinatiing to watch how he was able to manipute hot material into a beautiful piece. After seeing the demonstration we were off to a nearby gallery that featured works of 15 artisans of the island of Muraano. Some historical tidbits we learned were that the early glass makers were actually prisoners on th island and could not leave. Even today only descendants of those families work making these fine pieces of art. We were not allowed to take pictures of the work but it was incredible. Something that we learned about glassmaking was that if they were working on a piece and it was accidentally came off while in furnace they would have stop production and remove everything and then restart the furnace with me glass. This would take about two weeks to get it back to working again. 

Burano was the island famous for making Venitian lace. The making of lace actually started by the women who were making fishing nets used the same process to create these delicate cloths and clothes. We were to watch as this old Italian woman described the intricate work that was started hundreds of years ago. They say that this may be the last generation to do this work and after this group of ladies pass away the techinque will pass away with them. It is sad but like many things, the demand for lace and the time and effort to create the peices is just not there so young people choose to work in other jobs. 

After touring the lace factory we spent an hour walking around the island of Burano. As you will see from it is a quaint villiage with many small colourful buildings. Marisa said Rhys would love it here seeing all of these old Italian men sitting outside the cafes smoking, drinking coffee and arguing about football. We stopped at a bakery to get some of these special cookies the island is famous for; they were so tasty and Marisa said her mom made cookies just like these so now we have to get her make some when we get home. As were leaving church was over and many of the locals were visiting in the square on the warm sunny mornings. It brought back memories of people at home visiting outside church after mass every Sunday.  

We returned to our ship via a different route. Along the way we met and chatted with Chris from Minnesota. People are so friendly and we  bumped into her at lunch and and she joined us for a nice meal out on the aft deck. (Note the marine terminology. I'm going to become a sailor as my next career.)  The boys won't believe that their mother actually was eating outside but it was a perfect day for it. How could you not enjoy the beautiful Adriatic as a bcground with the historic Venice on the left and boats and ships working their way in and out around the harbour. 

We attended the alumni hosted get together in the lounge tonight where we were the only ones from UofA so there was a group from Virginia Tech that invited us to join them. It wasn't long before we became good friends and were chatting and enjoy talking about our experiences and sharing a good time.  We became honorary Hokies and have the picture below to prove it.