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In Venice, I took the vaporetto (water bus) to the island of Murano, to check out all the glass. A fair amount of the glass studios were open, and almost all of them were free, in the hopes that after you had watched the artists do their thing, you would go next door and purchase their wares. The first guys we saw were making vases. Apparently red glass is expensive because one of the things they use to make the glass red is gold. There was a line of well-dressed guys who worked there standing outside the door (cheap advertising!), and as we passed by them, one of them said, "Will you blush for me?" He knew not what stout stock I was made of; no, I will not. :)
All of the studios had cool detail work on the gates and doors, too, as would be expected.
Glass roses. It was fun watching all the big, burly Italian men sweating away to create these delicate little glass flowers.
Doorknobs on one of the shops.
Glass rubble outside a studio.
Last night being the professor's birthday, her husband organized a party, complete with hors d'oeuvres and a sommelier to try and learn us some class. Everyone got all dressed up, I wore makeup, we had tablecloths, and someone set up their Ipod over the speakers with Mozart. Which segwayed into Li'l John, because it was on shuffle.
Irises and snapdragons
Setting up the spread.
Delicious vegan food. Like prosciutto, salami, and fresh mozzarella.
The sommalier imparted upon us all sorts of wonderful knowledge, from how to properly smell and taste wine to colors. The three colors of red she told us about were purple (youngest), ruby, and orange (most mature). She was a little irritated that we'd started eating before we started tasting the wine, though she didn't stress the "don't brush your teeth, don't wear cologne, don't wear deodorant" that the hardcore wine tasters do. And while I usually consider myself good at picking out flavors in wine, I got none of them last night (raspberries, violets, and wood smoke). I could've said pencil erasers and petrol gas and wouldn't've been any further from right.
All of the studios had cool detail work on the gates and doors, too, as would be expected.
Glass roses. It was fun watching all the big, burly Italian men sweating away to create these delicate little glass flowers.
Doorknobs on one of the shops.
Glass rubble outside a studio.
Irises and snapdragons
Setting up the spread.
Delicious vegan food. Like prosciutto, salami, and fresh mozzarella.
The sommalier imparted upon us all sorts of wonderful knowledge, from how to properly smell and taste wine to colors. The three colors of red she told us about were purple (youngest), ruby, and orange (most mature). She was a little irritated that we'd started eating before we started tasting the wine, though she didn't stress the "don't brush your teeth, don't wear cologne, don't wear deodorant" that the hardcore wine tasters do. And while I usually consider myself good at picking out flavors in wine, I got none of them last night (raspberries, violets, and wood smoke). I could've said pencil erasers and petrol gas and wouldn't've been any further from right.
