Think of Murano.....

...and you think of glass. So today, I invite you to accompany me as I
revisit the island of Murano, just twenty minutes over the water from
Venice, where vitreous and other delights await!

Passing the island of San Michele on the way out, our arrival on Murano
was greeted by touts "directing" us to the main glass blowing furnaces
that line the route to the main part of town. Murano is about glass,
certainly - but it can be about the "hard sell" as well - and we were
instantly aware that we were being rounded up in order for our pockets
to be fairly efficiently emptied.

(When Liz's daughter married last year, she and her new husband stayed
at the luxurious Cipriani Hotel in Venice, and found it "interesting"
that she was separated on arrival on Murano from all the other
people who had gone on the same tour, with the surreptitious words to
the factory guide "these are from the Cip". They were obviously assumed
to have bottomless pockets and worthy of special cosseting!)

Liz and I did indeed enjoy the glass blowing demonstration (all ten
minutes of it!) - but were not convinced that the abundance of five and
ten Euro notes in the "thank-you tray" were actually left by grateful
guests - so did as everyone else did, and left small change that was
cluttering our pockets. We did NOT then empty our pockets further in
their overpriced showroom!

Murano is about glass - these little animals were typical of what we saw
in many dozens of shop windows - but there was so much more, if, as
always, you take the time to step just a little off the "beaten track".
It is inbuilt into both our brains to do this - and we were rewarded
with sights of great beauty and interest in hidden and quieter corners.

Churches enticed us here on Murano as much as in Venice itself (Liz is
as much of a "church crawler" as I am) - and these are the beautiful
items which we discovered in the church of San Pietro Martire.

Exquisite chandeliers abounded on the island in many of the  shops - this is just one of more than a dozen lighting the interior of the church. Look also at the roundels surrounding the altar painting - each of which is a scene from the life of the Madonna.

Take a closer look at the front of the altar - superb, fine carving of
the marble (alabaster?) figures, surrounded by polychrome decorative
marble work and look....

The floors in so many of the churches were great works of art in themselves - this is just a simple example.

Walking through an inconsequential door in the corner of the church, I was overwhelmed to enter a room panelled entirely in these  magnificent, almost "in the round" wood carvings of mythical and historical figures......this is just one such figure - another occasion on which one can show and describe, but really needs to be up close to actually
experience the fineness of carving on each figure.

  In the vestibule at the bottom of a stairway, this palanquin looked as if it was "in storage" ready to be used to process a Madonna or saint
around on Feast days. It is decorated in tiny seed beads, which must sparkle and glitter in the sunlight when in use.

And here is a "Madonna in Waiting" - also ready for use, I imagine, on festival days - but even at "rest", a fine example of 19th century doll modelling - the faces made, I think, of painted "composition" plaster.

Up the stairs, to a little museum containing more religious items, but also a small cabinet which intrigued me - containing a number of
miniature items made of glass. I imagine that many of these sorts of things found their way home as gifts and souvenirs in the luggage of the 1906 Ladies - and not a few similar modern items found their way back to my dolls houses in my own laden bags!

We lunched - still in warm, balmy sunshine, surrounded by exotic pomegranate trees covered in fruit. We shopped, discovering exquisite little bottles and animals (I'll show you some in a later post) and we discovered an even more ancient, seventh century church, in which we sat and were again renewed by the silence.

Then we left Murano - to return past the walled cemetery island of San Michele, that Francesco Da Mosto declared wistfully, in "Francesco's Venice", would be his "last home", honey coloured and mournful in the glow of the setting sun. Too late to hop off the boat to visit, it will be an exploration for another time.

What abundant experiences in one day - enough to last a lifetime of memories and  remembrances, already being stirred as I share them with you all. Oh, how very fortunate I have been to experience this journey, and now I am tasting one of the sweetest delights of keeping a journal, for as Anais Nin said, "We write to taste life twice, in the moment, and in retrospection". This delight is there for us all, just at the end of a pen. Why not savour it for yourself, next time you travel anywhere at all?

Comments

[Britt-Arnhild]

How great to be back at Morano again. Thanks for taking me with you :-)

[Sheila]

This is wonderful, I it enjoyed as much as I could from my desk! I am a church 'crawler' too, no matter where I go, I find them fascinating.I have kept a travel diary for the last fifteen years, and have enjoyed 're-visiting' the places I wrote about.I have also learned that the best souvenirs are photographs,they cost nothing, weigh nothing, and don't need dusting!

[Karla]

Roz,

I'm curious about the churches you visited. I'd assume most were Catholic, given this is Italy. Did any of them have labyrinths on the floors like so many of the cathedrals in France do? Just wondering.

[Marie-Noëlle]

Roz,

I am so thankful to you for making me leave the canals and the gondolas and follow you this way !!!
Beautiful !!!

[Maryam in Marrakesh]

I found what you said about the woman beggar touching. I, too, am never quite sure what to do about beggars.

[Laura]

Have you now visited the walled cemetery island of San Michele? I hope to visit there very soon and was wondering if there was a book of rememberance there.thankyou.