Where Venetian Glass Was Born

Glass factories and gorgeous churches on the Venetian island of Murano

The island of Murano is the biggest of the three major islands in Venice's northern lagoon. It offers a sense of what Venice might have been like as a small village, well before the tourists invaded. Its docks and canals bustle with fishermen unloading the day's catch, its calle are heated by the furnaces of its many glass factories, an age-old tradition of this island and a craft that has long since spread to Venice itself.

Shoppers can head directly to the outlet stores—in fact, the quickest way here is on one of the junket boats from Piazza San Marco, though you'll have to suffer through a tour of some glass factory and a hard-sell at the end. They take quality seriously at most stores on Murano, where you never pay the sticker price (bargain down to at least 2/3 of the asking price). Even better, in many of the workshops glassblowers will create items, especially trinkets, for you on the spot.

Murano has five vaporetto docks. You usually land at Colonna or Museo, but continue on to Burano from Faro.

If you like your artisan craft with a bit of history, head to the Museo Vetraio di Murano (tel. +39-041-739-586), where you can examine a large collection of glass objects from ancient Roman times through the 19th century as well as see displays on the history and practice of the craft itself.

To get away from the glass, visit the church of San Pietro Martire, filled with the unexpected riches of oil paintings by Tintoretto, Veronese, and Giovanni Bellini and some lovely carved paneling in the sacristy.

The truly ancient church of Santa Maria e Donato turns the gorgeous exterior of its apse to the canal so you can admire the stacked colonnades, dog-tooth molding, and inlaid Byzantine designs. The current structure was rebuilt in the 12th century, but its uses Corinthian columns that date from Roman times to the 6th century, a 6th-century pulpit, a patterned floor from 1141 that rivals that of San Marco, and some 15th-century frescoes.

Venice's Outlying Islands: Murano | Burano | Torcello