MATTEO MATTEO ! - 12/13/2023

 I'm very tired so bare with me. Yesterday we took the private boat tour to Murano & Burano. The former a glassmaking island, the latter a cookie and lacemaking island. Denise was our tour guide. She was sweet and chill and probably the youngest tour guide beside Alex, who she dates. She was fashionable and had  charming teeth. I got myself a prosciutto snack and a hot tea form a restaurant across from our airbnb as my mom wasn't feeling well/ We hopped on ab boat with a driver named Matteo who Denise had known since highschool. Apparently boat drivers and water taxi drivers make a shit ton of money but a boat license costs like $350k!!! We drove to Murano island where we visited a glass-making factory. We were given a tour by another (suave, smooth) guy named Matteo. I bet if you yelled "Matteo" in campo 75% of the men would turn their head. We were met by a large room with furnaces and a handful of men doing glasswork--one of whom was a master (the highest of like five levels) who made a horse out of hot glass right before our very eyes in like one minute. It was batshit insane. Apparently its a dying art on the island which is sad--they're having trouble finding younger folks who want to learn. My mother and I got to do something no other guests have apparently done which was blow glass ourselves. Thanks to Denise, who worked at the factory as a teen, we were given that special privilege. So I blew first. We were told to blow as long and hard as we could to make the biggest shape we could. I made a fairly large balloon-sized glass bubble and my mom did one just a bit smaller. We were then let lose in the glass sculptures section where we had the option to buy items. I never said "wow" so much in my life. There were so many beautiful pieces, from chandeliers to vases to animals and more. I think I had to narrow it down to just one item I'd say it'd be the vase covered in honey made out of glass + surrounded by glass bumblebees. After the tour I bough Jorge a Murano glass bead bracelet. Its beautiful. My mom  and I then took pics at the pier. The houses and shops in Burano are so brightly colored--a candy-land place. We walked all around stopping at various buildings to pose and take pics against their colorful backgrounds. I got some great content, including Wes Anderson-style video where I walked past a spot far in the distance. My mom did a great job with this. We at some point entered a lace-making store--that art being something Burano is famous for. One interesting thing we learned is that each lacemaker dedicated their entire lives to mastering one type of stitch and that stitch only. There are seven different stitches and thus to complete a design which utilizes all 7 it takes seven different people/ This is also a dying art as the younger folks have no interest in putting in the time and patience to learning it -- it was quite easy to pick up on the lady who showed us around's disgust in the fact that the daughter of this generation would rather be on her phone and social media than learn the craft. The youngest lacemaker there is 54 years old. The last lacemaking school was shut down in like 1985. My mom bough a runner and placemats (I believe) form there. Lastly we got us some cookies and then we were taken to the Venizia San Lucia Station and from there went to the Emstre station (we missed the stop the first time because the train doors didnt open) and then I made us get off a stop early at Roma Turbantina instead of Roma Termini smh. Luckily Daniel picked us up from there. We got back home and I'm pretty sure went right to sleep. Now Ive remembered that I never wrote about my brief time in Florence meeting my beautiful penpal at La Giostra restaurant. I'm tempted to write it now at this moment but Im afraid Ill end up staying up too late counting both that and the numerous things that happened today on my birthday.