Murano and Burano . . .

From Venice we caught a water taxi out to the islands of Murano and Burano.  Two colourful islands, Murano for its glass and Burano for its painted houses.  It was fabulous to see some colour through all the grey fog.  Unbelievably we left Murano having bought no glass for ourselves - the girls bought a little something for their friends.  But we had a ball walking through the streets spotting all the different ways the locals had used the coloured glass - from bright blue glass embedded in the tops of walls to deter pigeons, to the lovely street lights hanging outside houses.  We also stumbled across different glass sculptures dotted throughout the streets.  Shop after shop of coloured glass left us a bit dazed and it all started to look the same (and a bit tacky).  By the time we got to Burano we were all a little chilled and a little weary so we jumped off the water taxi and ran around the island snapping photos of the coloured houses and keeping warm.  20 mins later we were back on the next departing water taxi headed back to Venice.

The pretty little island town of Murano.

The girls and I had so much fun collecting little bits of broken glass
from out of the cracks in the pavement.  Who needs to buy expensive souveniours?

This glass sculpture was huge and really impressive.

Even the house windows were special.

This giant sculpture looked like a huge protea flower - stunning.

A glass blower wall plaque we found on the side of a house - made of mini glass tiles naturally.

A glass flower garden sitting on the corner of a street.

The coloured houses of Burano.
Amazing reflections.

The washing seemed to be colour coded to the houses.

Even the girls blended in.