The Rough Guide to Venice and the Veneto

the highest funeral honour the city can bestow – and the more elaborate tomb
for Serge Diaghilev. Devotees of Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo) can reach his
disconsolate memorial by going through the gap in the wall-graves to the right of
sections M and N, then doubling back behind section M: he’s up on the top row
of block 13.
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the northern islands
| Murano
Murano
In 1276 the island of Murano became a self-governed enclave within the Republic,
with its own judiciary, its own administration and a Libro d’Oro to register its
nobility. By the early sixteenth century Murano had thirty thousand inhabitants,
and was a favourite summer retreat for Venice’s upper classes, who could lay out
gardens here that were far more extensive than those in the cramped centre of the
city. The intellectual life of the island was especially healthy in the seventeenth
century, when literature, philosophy, the occult and the sciences were discussed in
the numerous small accademie that flourished here. But the glass-blowing industry
is what made Murano famous all over Europe, and today pulls in thousands of
tourists every day in high season: indeed, for many visitors to the city, Murano is
the first thing to see after the Piazza. The main fondamente of Murano are today
given over almost entirely to shops selling glasswork, and it’s difficult to walk more
than 50m on this island without being invited to step inside a showroom – and
once inside, you’re likely to be pressured into forking out for some piece of hideous
kitsch which may not even have been made here. There are, however, some
very fine (and expensive) items on sale as well, and you can see some remarkable
work in the Murano glass museum – the island’s main sight, alongside the beautiful
church of Santi Maria e Donato.
Around the island
From the Colonna vaporetto stop (the first stop after San Michele for the #41/42)
you step onto the Fondamenta dei Vetrai, traditionally the core of the glass industry
(as the name suggests) and now the principal tourist trap. Towards the far end
is the Dominican church of San Pietro Martire (daily 9am–noon & 3–6pm), one
of only two churches still in service on the island (compared with seventeen when
the Republic fell in 1797). Begun in 1363 but largely rebuilt after a fire in 1474,
its main interest lies with its paintings, which are lit by an annoying system that
entails either a lot of running about with coins or, if the machines are broken (they
often are), cajoling the sacristan. Save most of your change for a pair of paintings
by Giovanni Bellini hanging on the right wall: on the left is the large and elegant
Madonna and Child with St Mark, St Augustine and Doge Barbarigo, on the right an
Assumption, recently returned to its home after many years of restoration. On the
opposite side of the church are two slight pieces by Veronese – St Agatha in Prison
and St Jerome in the Desert. The Cappella del Sacramento, to the left of the main
altar, was originally dedicated to the angels and contains four paintings of personable
representatives of the heavenly host. The sacristy, with its modest museum
(e1.50), is only worth seeing for the wood carving in the vestry, which includes
some grotesquely naturalistic Baroque atlantes depicting historical and mythological
characters such as Nero, Socrates, Pythagoras and Pontius Pilate, with the Four
Seasons on either side of the altar. Between the figures, panels show scenes from
the career of John the Baptist.