Italy... Murano and Burano

Island of Murano

He said, "We don't have any women masters in Murano and that's because, a woman cannot blow glass and talk at the same time"... Well what can I say, the problem is universal!

Jokes apart, the masters subtle rotation of the rod, with a blob of glass hot out of the furnace at one end, and gravity doing its part in pulling the blob off the rod, to form weird shapes, is nothing but sheer magic. A gentle blow from the other end and a few strokes of the rod and voila, a vase comes to life. If you thought this was sheer brilliance one must admire the pulling technique with awe. Clearly, working on glass with the pulling technique is like sculpting castles of the sand. The imaginative parlance of the 'Master' is far beyond any viewer in the room. A couple of gentle pulls using tongs clubbed with gravity doing a tad of its part and the end result can be anything but your imagination!

Apart from farming, I cannot imagine another practice that has been passed down from father to son for over a thousand years. Even today, there are no schools to teach one to become a glass-maker. All masters across the island of Murano's factories, are descendants of great masters from the renaissance.

As soon as you step foot on Murano, you are greeted by many factories lined-up on the shore-line. The boat ride brings along a tour guide who recommends one of the factories and escorts us to meet the factory guide. The sharply dressed guide from the factory takes us through the process and history of glass-making at Murano. He does struggle to keep up speed with his explanation of the same in 3-4 different languages and he cannot be blamed for the same. The master is so skillful and fast, that a couple of strokes and the final product is ready for display in 3-5 minutes.

The glass blowing demonstration ends with a tour of their personal and rather exquisite showroom. While photography is not permitted for proprietary reasons, one gets so engrossed with the charm of sculpting with glass, that you forget everything and everyone around. The individual brilliance and sheer imagination is limitless when you see some of the details that have gone into the Ferrari's of glass making. Not only is the finish as fine and delicate, they are equally expensive to their four-wheeled Italian cousins. A few souvenirs from the showroom to bring back memories of a fading yet glamorous industry, is all that a common man can think of. Most buyers, a rather elite group, place orders and let these factories ship them across the globe. This sleepy town has been the holy grail for glass making for over 700 years and would continue to do so in many hundreds of years to come. Murano... a bow to the king of glass-making.

As you speed past Murano and head along the highways of the channel, a glimpse of Burano from the deck of the boat skims past like a finger-smudge of verdant hues of greens, reds and yellows. Little houses are painted different colors and is such a candy-treat to the eye.

Island of Burano

An artists imagination can only be as vivid as the town itself. Beautiful houses brought to life among all the Roman ruins spread across Italy. Apart from a few shops in the midst of the Piazza, to attract the outnumbered tourists, one does find the town a bit spooky as the day goes by. No loud people, hardly anyone out on the streets and old women working with their needles to create the wonders of lace, that is how this island celebrates life.

The island has been a wonder since the 6th century but it truly got its space in the world map in the 16th century, when lace making with needles was introduced to the world. The mainstay of the island being fishing, the women would get together and find solitude in lace making while the men wander off to the sea. This was the life for a hundreds of years, till the lace making industry developed to a factory model reducing time and cost of production. Today, although the business proposition of lace making has declined drastically, one may still find a few old women weaving their magic in designing some of the best tableware and garments.

Murano and Burano would always remind me of how artists and homemakers are striving hard to maintain their tradition ways, in the so called modern age. For now, it still seems a distant reality for someone from the hustle and bustle of the information age!

Italy... Art lovers Paradise!

Piazza Navona - Rome

Art stops time, and I experienced it as well. Staying fixated at a painting full of exuberant colors is not something new and one must surely have done it at least once in life. Someone once told me that it would takes months just to explore Rome and half of it would surely be spent standing in from of a 3x4. You never quite understand that till you stumble upon Rome's cobbled-stone Piazza's, especially the most famous of all, Piazza Navona. This square is enlivened every day by many artists who with their art succeed in capturing the features and the typical expressions of those being depicted. Be it a ballerina in red with her back facing us or the carpet of poppy laid out for you along the rolling hills of Tuscany, each artist brings his inspiration to life with so much care and concern. 

It is easy for an untrained eye to get mixed up with the work of a real artist pitted against a counterfeit one. Today their is more of chaos and clutter while creativity takes a beating. Sipping hot cappuccino by one of the small cafe's nearby, one of the locals at the cafe said that the local laws (Or rather the lack of it) are killing the legitimate while the fake peddlers are making an easy cut on reproductions. The least that most do, is to tell the boggled tourist that this is not their art and the real artist is elsewhere. Such honesty too takes a beating in some of the other streets.

Walking among all the canvas, a charcoal painter with a customer sitting across is bound to catch your eye. He starts with the eyes, then the nose and finally the lips. Each time using his fingers to soften the feel of her. Gentle strokes of his charcoal pencil, which can barely be seen to the naked eye, circle the outline of the face and hair. More flamboyant strokes of his pencil and to add his deep humming of a song from the past, the recreation of the lady nears completion. The only thing left, is her walking out of the paper, and she is beautiful. He does not demand a fixed price and instead, leaves the person being painted to spend time with herself on paper. She touches her paper-self, pays him and he walks away to the next lovely face. That's when you picture a true painter in your mind.

As noon progresses and you start to explore some of the other nooks and corners of town, one is bound to find a more contemporary artist hidden away in the alleys. Imagine a controlled graffiti artist who using spray cans and a few stencils, comes up with the most innovative and exaggerated view of some of the prominent landmarks of Rome. Well, that's exactly what was happening. Large noisy groups surround this person, who in her own world is throwing cans with bursts of spray at her paper. Soon, when the colors get vibrant and the bi-stander cannot understand the outcome, there is pin-drop silence. A few more cans thrown around and 5 minutes later, her art in an unreal star-war themed Rome comes to life. 

Whatever said, art here is something that keeps you gazing. Like someone once said, "A picture is a poem without words"

Music is another form of art that does not crave attention in Italy. It comes naturally to many and most perform for the the sheer pleasure they derive in it. As you stroll by the snake-like lanes of Italy, be sure to find a musician who will surprise you at least once. An evening in a Piazza or at one of the prominent viewing points is never noisy with all the tourists, but is far more serene and quintessentially romantic to even the stone-hearted. From all the lovely memories that stand out, Francesco Bassi's vocals and guitar at Piazza Michelangelo, Florence; was the most soothing to over 150 people seated at the steps of the square. The sun setting behind the singer and some Chianti to soothe a couple in love or an aching heart, was in every ones mind. Speaking to him after his near 3 hour performance, just as he is rapping up for home, he said, "If i don't share my best with you (his voice), where is the fun of this life"...!

Will remember him for a long time to come for rekindling many memories and giving us a perfect evening.

Venice has artists who create music with passion. You are bound to find someone sitting all alone with a Cello in the middle of a square and creating notes from the dark spring clouds. A few lanes ahead, you may find a violinist's fingers running faster than the chattery banter of a group of tourists. A couple of more bridges across and you would stop to think what instrument is this and more importantly, which direction is it coming from. As you wander through the tiny streets and reach a small corner, still trying to figure out the eerie and unusual sound, you come across the most innovative musician of the lot, a glass harmonica player. His music still rings a sense of calmness in my mind even today.

The people of Italy chase their dreams. Money, house and other material life is second in their dictionary. Good food, music to cherish the moment and a few conversations are far more important to their day to day life. How can life be so complicated with such trivial needs!

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up"~Pablo Picasso

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