We’re staying at Ca ‘Sagredo, a beautiful hotel that was once a private villa. It was built in the early 1400’s, before Columbus ever touched American soil.  Each morning we climb a lovely staircase to go to breakfast and at the bottom of the stairs are two statutes. This is one of them – just a little decoration. You can see a tiny bit of the Venetian glass chandelier which hangs from the huge room at the top of the stair

We took a water taxi to the island of Murano, for a private tour of some glass blowing facilities and glass artist galleries. We arrived around 9:30 in the morning and Murano was wonderfully quiet. 

We saw the work of Lino Tagliapietra, who is almost 82 and was named a master glassblower in 1950, when he was only in his early twenties.