After finishing the European bike trip through Austria, Italy and Slovenia, we all took a shuttle van to Venice Italy where we spent three days and two nights exploring fun and interesting things around town. I have only been to Venice once before, when I was fifteen years old, on a school trip and this time around I got a better sense of what Venice is really like thanks to Costanza who patiently explained, guided and accommodated me across the various islands.
She made an appointment for us to visit the island of Murano, where famous glass art is crafted, to have a business meeting to investigate sourcing materials to her Los Angeles design company. She let me tag along and accompany her as I stood wide eyed with my hands in my pocket making a concerted effort not to break anything. Murano glass is apparently world famous — they produce chandeliers for retail locations of major Italian fashion designers and prices there I saw were over $50,000.
One of the head salesmen of the company greeted us when we landed on the island from the free boat he was kind enough to send for us (well really for Costanza). He gave us a tour of the glass factory where an artisan glass maker crafted a dancing horse for us in about 50 seconds (you can see the video on my YouTube channel).
Costanza has friends everywhere, especially in Italy, and we quickly connected to some of them while we were in Venice and took a boat to a cool party on the North Western side of the city after having a super delicious dinner altogether at a fancy Venetian restaurant. She also took me to see an international architectural exhibit featuring thought provoking installations from various cultures. It was like Epcot center but for futuristic architecture. Now I’m a big fan of Venice!
