Italy Glass Experience

Enchanted Cobwebs · November 13, 2015, 08:20:29 PM

We will be married 25 years in 2017 and would like to mark the occasion with a glassy tour / experience. Claude fuses and I flame. Holidays lazing on a beach just are not us, so, can anyone suggest the perfect place / tour for a pair of glassy bods? We were thinking Italy but that's as far as we got...If we could come home with glassy supplies we would be made up too!

flame n fuse · November 13, 2015, 09:36:06 PM

We greatly enjoyed a trip to Venice a few years ago. A lot of Murano glass is OTT, but plenty to talk about. The various islands are all interesting, from wild life (nightingales) to architecture. Alternatively, what about the US - Corning Museum etc?

Moira HFG · November 14, 2015, 12:08:42 AM

It was our 25th this summer....we had a week in Venice, a week in Florence and a week on Sicily. It was blissful and I recommend this plan highly!
We went in June before the Italian holiday season gets going properly, so nothing was heavily crowded. We travelled about by train (cheap and punctual!) If you want to stock up on glass, you might do it the other way round so you can go to Murano just before you go home.
We did it all self-catering so got to poke around the lovely Italian markets - all from Trip Advisor and Air BnB. But of course there are plenty of nice hotels if you prefer.
Italy is rammed with beautiful art of all varieties, glass included. Venice will have the Art Biennale again in 2017.

I hope you have a wonderful time, whatever you do!

Moira

Pat from Canvey · November 14, 2015, 09:02:48 AM

Just a tip. Unless a lot has changed, You cannot buy glass rods in Murano.

Pat from Canvey · November 14, 2015, 09:05:21 AM

Forgot to say that you can buy tools, Carlo Dona ones though, http://www.carlodona.com/english/products/products.html

Enchanted Cobwebs · November 14, 2015, 02:32:36 PM

Quote from: Pat from Canvey on November 14, 2015, 09:02:48 AM
Just a tip. Unless a lot has changed, You cannot buy glass rods in Murano.

No rods! glad you mentioned, would be well disappointed!

Moira HFG · November 14, 2015, 03:37:19 PM

Ah. I must admit I didn't go looking for rods, I was more interested in the glass museum on Murano (which was great!). All I bought was a pair of tweezers, with a prong on the back end for shunting bits into place when fusing!
Looking at the Effetre website though, there is an office on Murano, and a warehouse on the mainland. I wonder if you can at least view the goodies at one of these? They might only sell in bulk though.

http://www.effetremurano.com/prodotti.html

flame n fuse · November 14, 2015, 05:51:33 PM

We were there in April 2014 and (too late) discovered that there were some lectures/workshops run by the glass school, which we missed. I see in this link , that there is a festival in December which sounds fun! http://www.muranoglassgifts.com/Blog/events-in-the-island-of-murano. and these people might be worth a look http://www.abatezanetti.it/en/the-school-of-glass/courses

Pat from Canvey · November 15, 2015, 09:11:01 AM

Check the weather in December though. In Feb 2012, there was ice floating on the canals and snow.