VENICE ISLANDS
MURANO, THE GLASS MANUFACTURER
"The craftsmen modeled the harmonious goblets, everyone obeying in operating to a rhythm its just generated from the quality of the matter and the custom of the moviments apt to dominate it."
Gabriele D'Annunzio, Il fuocoGlass manufacturing is a distant tradition in Venice. Since the year 1000, there have been traces of the manufacturing of glass.
Around the end of the XIII° century, The Republic of Venice, forced glassmakers to move to Murano because they thought in case of a fire, it could burn down the city's mostly wooden buildings.
The importance of Murano in manufacturing glass grew all around Europe. What made Murano's manufacturing unique, was that they used pure silica extracted from local quartz pebbles. The majority of the population in Murano were glassmakers, and they were forbidden to leave the Republic in fear that they would open there their own business or sell to other manufacturers in Europe the secret of their manufacturing style.
Sand is a peculiar element to prepare a good glass product, and of course Venice has lots of high quality sand in its shores. Glass is the result of several mixed elements: the sand constitutes the main part of the glass. It contains also sodium, calcium carbonate, sodium nitrate and arsenic. Other substances are used to colour it.
A specific characteristic of glass is its way of solidification. It takes 1400°C to fond it and then a temperature of 500°C to maintain the glass fluid.
Glassworkers in Murano were and still are very experienced in manufacturing glass, and for this reason glass production is a drawing sector of Venetian economy beyond its artistic importance.
Murano, Burano and Torcello Half Day Sightseeing Tour
Depart from St Mark's Square by motorboat and visit the first island, Murano, where you can watch the antique art of glass making. The tour then proceeds to the Island of Burano, a fisherman's island renowned for lace making. The last island is Torcello with its old Cathedral and its atmosphere of remote Venetian past. A Venice private tour is an alternative.
Duration: 3,5 hours
Duration for Private Tour: 4 hours
Price: Starting from €20.00 per person
Price for Private Tour: Starting from €118,75 per person
based on traveler feedback
BURANO, the tradition of needle–lace
"The island of light, the harmoniously quiet island, forgotten from the land, voted to the religion of the sea".
Michel Desforgues
Burano is an island of the Venetian lagoon and it's famous for the production of handmade needle–laces. To trace the origin of lace production in Venice we have to go back to the year of 1500. Lace manufacturing is essentially based on the creation of geometrical drawings like flowers and animals.
With the pass of time, women from Burano became very experienced in making the lace, scooping the cutthroat competition of France.
Needle lace manufacturing unfortunately lost importance after the Serenissima's collapse; a new flowering period in the XVIII century arrived thanks to the work of Cencia Scarpaiola.
Nowadays it's possible to visit in Burano the Lace Museum.
Lace production is handed down from older to younger generations from centuries.
Its production required a lot of time, in fact women worked busily all day long.
Still today tourists are fascinated by the creative ability of lace workers.
TORCELLO
Torcello is a very romantic and fascinating island in the lagoon. Unlike Burano and Murano, Torcello is unhabitated. It's 
reachable from Venice taking the water bus (line N).
Archaeological remains of the past are still present in a remarkable state of conditions. The cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta is in Piazza Torcello. Inside the cathedral, a big mosaic representing the Universal Judgement embellishes the interior walls.
The Estrario Museum contains significant archaeological finds from the Roman, Byzanthine and medieval periods; near there is the so-called Sedia di Attila, a throne that once was the Administrator justice seat.
CHIOGGIA, the second little Venice
Chioggia is an island in the south of the Lagoon. It's one of the major fishing ports. It's about 25 km from the Venice coast.
The small islands, throughout the centuries, were subject to several historic events:
– in the IX° century, it was destroyed by the king Popping of Itlay.
– in the middle ages, it was abandoned in 1370 but later rebuilt and named Sottomarina.
– in the XIV° and XV° century it became the main principal contest between the Serenissima and the Republic of Genoa. It was conquered by Genoa (1378) and a couple of years later by Venice (1380).
The little island of Chioggia is also known to be a second Venice because of its old city centre, that looks very much like the centre of Venice. Like the Capital, Chioggia has its own main Canal, the Canal Vena, crossed by 9 brigdes.
Ponte Vigo, that takes you to Piazza Del Vigo, differs from the others for its majesty. Nowadays Chioggia accommodates the seat of the Maritime Biological studies of the University of Padua. Therefore Chioggia has many cultural attractions such as the church "Sant'Andrea", built during the XVIII° century, the Romanesque tower which was the place for military defence. The tower conserves the most ancient tower clock designed by Giovanni Dondi.
The museum of San Francesco, located in the homonym church, conserves ancient archives revealing the historical passages of the islands, and all kinds of objects dealing with the history of Chioggia are exposed. Every 3rd week-end of June Chioggia celebrates the "Palio della Marciliana", that evokes the war between the Serenissima and Genoa in the XIV° century.
Being a seaport, the main economic resource of Chioggia is fishing, but also the production of radicchio and tourism are very important economic revenues.
How to get there from Venice: take the lines 1 or 82 towards the Lido. Then you have to buy a ticket for the bus number 11 for Pellestrina. You should arrive in Chioggia in one hour and a half.
