@brittarnhild
In September 2005 Terje and I went to Venice and Murano. We had celebrated our silver wedding in July that same year, and we gave ourselves a week in Venice as an anniversary gift. 2005 was also my first year of blogging, and here is a post I made about our day trip to Murano:
One day during our week in Venice we took a day trip to the island Murano. We had bought a three days ticket on the vaporettos (the river boats) and could use this ticket not only in Venice but also out to the islands. I had heard so much about Murano and all the wonderful blown glass there, and spent the boat trip dreaming - what would the day bring!
As soon as we put our feet on Murano we were met by men guiding us to the glass blower factories, and we watched a show where a man made a wonderful bottle and a glass blown horse in almost no time. Quite amazing. We enjoyed the show and also browsing through the shopping area of the factory afterwards. But we didn't buy anything. Not then anyway. It was still morning and we wanted to see it all :-) So we walked a little further and came to Rio dei Vetrai. It was time for coffee and we sat down on one of the restaurants along the canal - Da Tandoro. A long time since breakfast, so we also had tiramisu with the coffee; when you are on holidays tiramisus can be eaten all day!
The cake gave us alot of fresh energy, and afterwards we walked for hours. Murano is such a wonderful place. Kind of Venice in miniature, but with so much less people. We passed several bridges, walked through quiet living areas, sat for a long time on the northern edge of the island enjoying the sea and the breeze, visited dozens of glass shops and spent quiet time in the churches of the island, the favorite was Chiesa dei Santi Maria e Donato where the old floor tiles, pavimento from around 1140, medieval mosaic with geometrical figures, excotic birds, mythical creatures and symbols I didn't understand, made me wish for my painting colours and my brushes, or my huge collection of quilt fabric - it would be a perfect quilt!
It was now almost too late for lunch. We passed a charming vegetable market on a boat! Thought about just buying some fruit and wait for dinner back in Venice for a proper meal. But our short visit at Da Tanduro in the morning was such a delight we wanted to go back there again for some lunch.
Found a free table on the "fundamenta" and ordered Risotto ai frutti di mare. We were a little surprised when the risotto was served directly from the casserole - that's what we do at home when we are in a hurry and want to save time. But forgot everything as soon as we started to eat. This was really the very best food we had tasted in a long, long time, if not the best ever!
We almost licked our plates and the casserole to be sure to get it all.
We ate sea food every day during our week in Venice, but never did we taste anything else as good as the risotto ai frutti di mare at Da Tanduro. I know I just have to go back to Venice again, take the vaporetto out to Murano and find my way up to Rio dei Vetrai and this restaurant. There I will sit on an outdoor table and eat a huge serving of risotto, while looking over to the other side of the canal where among many other shops I can see my favorite glass shop with all the lovely blue colours.
Tomorrow morning I fly back to Murano, the island which has almost become, if not a second (that´s our cabin), a third home for me.