Murano, Italy

In March of 2025 my daughter and I visited Murano, which is a small island near Venice.  Murano is famous worldwide because of all of its many glass factories.  Historically, the glass factories had been located on the island of Venice, but in 1291 they were all moved to Murano because of the threat of possible fires that would destroy the many beautiful and historic buildings on Venice.  You can purchase Murano glass all over Venice, and even more of it in Murano.

There are a few different ways you can reach Murano.  Probably the easiest is with the 4.1 and 4.2 vaporetto lines.  They run in opposite directions and make many stops.  The first thing I'd recommend is that you download the AVM app on your phone:

AVM Venezia Official App

On the AVM app you can click on the "Solutions" tab and list where you'd like to go and where you'd like to start, and it will provide a variety of vaporetto lines that will get you where you want to go.  You can also click on the Timetables tab and input your particular stop and see which lines stop at your vaporetto stop and at what time.  This came in very handy when planning how to get to Murano.

In our case, we were staying closest to the S Marta vaporetto stop.  It takes about 45 minutes to ride the 4.2 line from S. Marta to the first Murano vaporetto stop, which is the Colonna stop.  I would recommend getting off at the Colonna stop so that you can walk through Murano and see all the different shops and factories.  You can easily walk through Murano in just a few hours.  Then you can ride the 4.1 line in the opposite direction back to Venice.  The closest vaporetto stop on Venice to depart towards Murano is the F. Nove stop, so you can take a variety of vaporetto to reach F. Nove, and then switch to one of the lines going to Murano.  That's why the app is so useful, so that you can see all the different options.

Lines 12 and 13 are the most direct way to get from Venice to Murano, but you'd need to leave from F. Nove, and you'd need to study the timetables because lines 12 and 13 don't run as often as 4.1 and 4.2.

The vaporetto ride from Venice to Murano is beautiful.  Lines 4.1 and 4.2 stop at the Cimitero stop on the way, which is the island cemetery.  The cemetery is now full, so people are buried on the mainland now rather than on Venice or on the cemetery island.

The Scalzi Bridge, or Ponte degli Scalzi, which crosses the Grand Canal at the Venezia Santa Lucia train station

Ponte della Guglie

The F. Nove vaporetto stop, which is the closest Venice vaporetto stop to Murano

F. Nove stop

Cimitero Island, or Island of San Michele

The Cimitero Vaporetto Stop

view back at Venice

The Colonna Vaporetto Stop

You can hop off the vaporetto at the Colonna stop and walk along the canal, looking at all the shops.  We arrived before 9 am and walked the empty canal, with only an occasional shop worker making his way to work and mostly solitude as we looked in the shop windows and enjoyed the silence.  

workers were removing the Christmas lights the morning we were there

The garbage service was also out and about, collecting garbage and putting it on the garbage boat

One thing we noticed was that the items were more highly priced closer to the Colonna vaporetto shop than further onto Murano.  I suspect this is because some people just hop off and look at a few shops near the stop, and hop back on and leave.  I found some really great deals at some of the shops further in.  Even if you're not shopping, it's worth walking along the canal and looking at all of the beautiful glass artwork.

This bridge is called Ponte San Pietro Martire and the bridge behind it is called Torre dell'Orologio, or the clock tower which is in the main square on Murano, Campo Santo Stefano.

This bridge is Ponte Longo, which connects two sides of Murano

The Venier vaporetto stop

We headed off the canal road into the residential streets and found yards that looked like this

a small soccer field in a residential neighborhood

My daughter

The Museo Vaporetto stop

We visited the Murano Glass Museum, which costs ten euro per person.  The museum opens at ten a.m. and closes at 6 p.m. in the summer, and 5 p.m. in the winter.  Their official website is here:

Murano Glass Museum

We also visited a glass factory and watched a demonstration.  We visited Wave Murano Glass Factory.  It was free to enter.  Their website is here:  Wave Murano Glass

discarded pieces of glass

Only within a few hours the streets were full of people

I purchased this tiny nativity set in Murano.  It cost 120 euro and had many very tiny pieces.

The Colonna vaporetto stop is at the bottom point of Murano.  We walked up that small canal, crossed the bridge, and explored the larger part of the island.  Our visit was only a few hours and included shopping, visiting the museum, and watching a factory demonstration.  Murano is definitely worth the time to visit!!