| A trip through Italy is all about beauty, art and | | | | You have to visit one of these glassmaking |
| history. Everywhere you turn, there is an ancient | | | | workshops to understand the magic of glass. The |
| villa, or a ruin of a palace, or a thousand years old | | | | picture is straight from Dante's Inferno. |
| orchard. There is light like nowhere else in the | | | | Horrendous heat forms beads of sweat on the |
| world, and smiling people, music, wine and food. | | | | faces of glassmakers, and globs of fiery, not |
| It is the history that mostly captivates the | | | | entirely liquid, glass in their hands quickly |
| imagination of people form the New World when | | | | transforms into objects of unbelievable beauty. |
| they visit Italy. Walking through two thousand | | | | They blow their pipes into the globs of glass, turn |
| years old streets boggles the imagination. Getting | | | | it and shape it, until they are satisfied and the |
| married in an eight hundred years old palace is | | | | shape is exactly as it was in their imagination. |
| something that becomes a part of family lore. | | | | There is no way around it, making glass is an art |
| Everywhere you look, there is a story of the | | | | that requires very special people. Murano has been |
| past. Sometimes glorious, often violent, but | | | | passing this passion for glass for more than eight |
| always human, and never forgotten. | | | | hundred years, from one family member to |
| Visiting Murano is, just like visiting Venice, a must. | | | | another. There were times when it was forbidden |
| For many people, Venice is Italy: ancient glorious | | | | to leave Murano, in order to preserve the secret |
| palaces, sleek gondolas slowly gliding through | | | | of Murano glass. The secrets made Murano |
| canals, old churches still working after more than | | | | famous all over the world, they made it the |
| half of century since they were built. | | | | center of glass art highly appreciated among the |
| If Venice is Italy, Murano is glass. This beautiful old | | | | rich and powerful. Murano glass was too precious |
| island city is immersed in the history of glass, and | | | | and too expensive to fall into hands of ordinary |
| its ancient palaces hide among them equally old | | | | people. |
| glass workshops, which still function the same | | | | Murano produced some object of breathtaking |
| way they worked eight hundred years ago when | | | | beauty from its furnaces. They decorate |
| they were built. There is something incongruous | | | | museums, palaces and homes of royal families, |
| about this mix of romantic Gothic architecture | | | | famous hotels, homes of rich and famous. |
| interspersed with a touch of industry, regardless | | | | Today, Murano glass is accessible to the rest of |
| how old. But, that mix is the story of Murano and | | | | the world. Small pieces of art, or jewelry, find |
| Murano glass. | | | | their way from Murano furnaces to the shops all |
| Enormous furnaces reach temperature of 2700 | | | | over the world, and to the hearts of those who |
| °F and transform piles of fine, white sand into | | | | appreciate the beauty of glass and the magic of |
| liquid gold, or a rainbow of colors, ready to be | | | | transformation from the pile of sand to the piece |
| shaped by the skilled hands of glassmakers. | | | | of art. |