Island Of The Glassblowers

Today we took a vaporetto to a small island called Murano. The island is a bit like Venice but smaller The island is famous for all the things it makes out of glass. Dad's friend Ren Yuan came along, too. The vaporetto ride was long and it was hot, smelly, loud, and packed. Half way there I had some biscuits with chocolate on them and some water.

Eventually we got there and we walked for a while to get the museum. While we were walking I noticed that there were a lot of brick arches in the architecture and almost every shop sold glass ornaments, accessories, vases, and bowls [André originally wrote 'bowels'. Ed.] Another thing that caught my eye was that a lot of the buildings looked run down.

We thought that we were going to see a glass-making demonstration at the museum but we didn't. While we were walking to the museum Ren Yuan walked off to see a church. Still we saw lots of bowls, plates, vases, and even a model garden. Then we went to another glass museum and saw the same type of things as the first one. After the second museum we went to the church and picked up Ren Yuan.

Squid dinner with my sister, Lucy.

After that we went to a sort of run-down café near an area where we could see glassblowing being done. We went in and I was in front and I could feel the heat of the furnaces from even a long way away. The guy who was doing the presentation showed how vases and bowls are made then he showed how statues and sculptures are made and made a glass dolphin. He put the glass on a long metal rod and turned the rod left and right a bit like someone roasting a joint on a campfire. After it was done he put it down on a table to let it cool then he put a small piece of newspaper on the dolphin's back and it burst into flames almost instantly. Then we got a vaporetto home. On the way home we stopped at the Alaska gelato place.

'Save us!'

For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant called Bentigodi. We took a vaporetto one stop to get there For starters we had a perfectly cooked squid pieces with herbs and a bit of lemon juice and a thing made with scampi, red onions, raisins, pine nuts, and balsamic vinegar. Right behind my seat was a type of display case with ice in it and while the waiter  was taking our order another another man opened the display case and put a giant fish into it. It was as long as my arm and half of my chest! For my main I had a four large delicious ravioli pieces filled with cheese. The cheese was very thick, delicious, and gooey. For dessert I had a small (but very rich) chocolate mousse.