May 31, 2014, Saturday
This was practically our last day of the trip as we had a
morning flight the next day. We visited the beautiful islands of Murano, Burano
and had a great time.
video covers Rialto
video covers Murano, Burano
How to reach Murano
From the Piazzale Roma or Ferrovia (the bus and
railroad stations):
Ride the Line 3 "Diretto Murano" boat, which takes
17 minutes to reach Murano Colonna from the railroad station. Stay on the boat
if you'd rather get off at Faro, Navagero, Museo, or Venier.
The 4.1 waterbus, which is slower than the 3 with local
stops along the way.
ACTV's Line 4.2 waterbus, which will take you to Murano by
way of the Fondamente Nove and the cemetery island of San Michele in just
over 40 minutes. (Or you can ride the Line 4.1 boat, which goes to Murano in
the reverse direction via the Giudecca
Canal
Murano
The ride was enjoyable and we reached Murano…
This is a monument park for veterans...
The island has its fair share of lovely architecture and bridges...
Glass sculpture displays add to the magic...
This is the Faro (light house) pier...with lovely glass birds...
Murano was a commercial port as far back as the 7th Century,
and by the 10th Century it had grown into a prosperous trading center with its
own coins, police force, and commercial aristocracy. Then, in 1291, the Venetian Republic
ordered glassmakers to move their foundries to Murano ostensibly because the
glassworks represented a fire danger in Venice ,
whose buildings were mostly wooden at the time. Probably it was just to
maintain the monopoly; It was a lot easier to keep track of them if they were
confined to an island.
That’s the story of how glassworks in Murano came into being.
What made Murano's glassmakers so special? For one thing,
they were the only people in Europe who knew how to make glass mirrors. They also developed or refined technologies such as
crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold
(aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori), milk glass (lattimo), and
imitation gemstones made of glass. Their virtual monopoly on quality glass
lasted for centuries
The excellence continues… we visited a glass factory and saw
a demo. The furnace is at 500C and we saw a vase and fish being made… great!
Then we wandered around the island enjoying the awesome craft on display.
We had walked on to the Faro pier.
Then we joined a long line and took the vaporetto to Burano.
Burano
It was a pleasure walking through
the fairy tale setting.
We wound our way back to the pier
We wanted to make it to Torcello too but realized the
distances are big.
We reluctantly made our way back to our familiar San Marco
pier.
This is the Vittorio Emanuele monument... the first ruler of unified Italy...
We called it a
day when darkness set in.
Paris , Rome , Florence and Venice
I'll continue with other European countries a little later.
As of now, I'm starting a post on our recent trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe!
June 1, 2014, Sunday:
We had left before 8 AM on Saturday the previous day and the
office at our apartment of course had been locked… we had had no checkout
briefing for Sunday when we were leaving…
Earlier over email I had enquired about their airport
shuttle … son was leaving by 11.30am flight from Marco polo and my flight was
at 3.30pm… they said their shuttle was 20 euros per person, no matter if the
same shuttle was shared by 2 people. I had thought I’ll stay around in the
lovely gardens till 12.30 on one of the lounges and then take their shuttle…
Now after facing the harsh reality, Moro Lin shuttle was
ruled out… there had been a TA review that the shuttle had ditched some one…
did not want to be fleeced by private taxi guys also. Reaching the train
station in Mestre to take the train to the airport was also a little difficult
as we have to call a taxi.
So the previous day we had bought tickets for the airport
shuttle leaving from Piazzale Roma… it’s kind of like touching the nose by
arching the hand around the back of the head!! But the route was familiar and
easy to do by public transport.
We decided we’ll go to Piazzale Roma and take the direct
airport shuttle itself… so at 6.50am on Sunday, we left Moro Lin, taking a
video of everything, locking the door, leaving the key there itself, closing
the wooden door over that, showing our watch, showing the office room locked
and got out!
A bus full of people going to Venice came our way at the bus stop near the
apartment, we reached Piazzale Roma, the airport shuttle left at precisely 7.50
and reached the airport at 8.05… son took leave at 10.30 am…
I sat near the escalator watching 2 elderly ladies fall and
a Chinese lady near me telling horror stories of how she had seen a young girl
wearing flipflops get her toes sniped on an escalator!
Went for my check in by 1 and heaved a huge sigh of relief
when the plane took off…the pleasant memories by far outweighed the niggles
posed by Moro Lin fiasco…
I'll continue with other European countries a little later.
As of now, I'm starting a post on our recent trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe!
covers the planning stage
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