Before we went to Venice, I almost booked a place to stay in Murano, not Venice. It looked almost the same. From Venice, you take the public boat and have one stop at the cemetery island before Morano. On the map, it looks much like Venice.
It is much like Venice.
Yet not the same.
We went just for half a day, just to do it, to see some of the famous glass and feel the difference if any. The boat was quite overpriced (10 EUR per person seems a lot for a bus ticket to me), but okay.
Morano is known for glass art and has been a major powerhouse for glass production for a very long time. It is, like Venice, built in the Venetian Lagune on pillars and with canals and bridges. But with much more space. The canals are wider, the streets too, and there are more piazzas in closer proximity. There is even nature! (But we did not have time to go there).
Morano is quieter, and funnily it seems both more real and, at the same time, like a huge tourist trap. Our second frozen pizza in all of Italy (even after asking specifically for not-freezer products), shops and shops and shops everywhere. At the same time, the shops were the shops of amazing glass artists, who could do things with glass, I had never seen before. It was so creative, skilled, and special. We felt we did not even need to visit the museum after looking at all the windows! I would for sure go again if I visit Venice again, especially because the Basilica was under renovation, so we did not get to see the (on the photos) extremely beautiful mosaic.
The rest of the day was somewhat chaos: We had to leave Venice, pick up our bags from storage, take the shuttle to our van, re-engage with the van, drive to Bologne to meet with Alexander and Ronja, with whom we have spent our time in Venice and who had their flight back from there. Parking was a nightmare, and we got stuck in a corner our 7 meters van almost could not make. Only thanks to some very skilled and equally helpful Italians did we make the turn. It was raining, and it was late.
But the white vegan, gluten-free pizza we had in Bologne was very, very good.
Love and light
Cecilie Conrad
# 122 of my 2023 writing challenge - Read them all here
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