Introduction
If you choose Murano drinking glasses for your table, you will be bringing luxury, sophistication, artistry, and centuries of tradition to your home. Created by skilled artisans, each glass is hand-blown and unique, crafted from top-quality materials using techniques passed down through generations.
It is easy to see why Murano glasses for wine, champagne, or cocktails bring tradition and Italian art to your table. These glasses, with their rich colors and elegant, sometimes intricate designs, make the Italian custom of gathering with family and friends to share food and wine even more enjoyable. Italians love to meet before dinner for the Aperitivo hour, a time for a cocktail, snacks, and conversation, even on weekdays. For celebrations, however, Italians often open bottles of sparkling wine or Champagne. Even though they know how to enjoy wine and other alcoholic beverages, Italians drink in moderation, feeling that a drink needs to be savored.
Types of Murano Glasses
Murano glasses have been popular with royalty and the nobility since the 15th century, but are now available to a wider range of people.
Whatever you want to drink, be it wine, champagne, a cocktail, a soft drink, or simply water, there are beautiful handmade glasses to suit. You can choose from traditional or modern styles, whether you want wine glasses, champagne flutes, tumblers, highball glasses, whiskey glasses, liqueur glasses, or shot glasses. Each glass will take you and your guests on a trip to the island of Murano.
Styles of Murano Drinking Glasses
Murano wine and other glasses are made using traditional techniques, sometimes with modern twists. Their colors may be tender or bright, they may have clean or intricate designs, and sometimes, elegant patterns, paint, or gold or silver leaf is embedded for a luxurious effect. To craft all this beauty, Italian glass masters use various traditional techniques, such as Millefiori, Filigrana, Tre Fuochi, and Incalmo.
Millefiori allows the master to create a quilt-like pattern in rich colors by fusing mosaic-like cross-sections of special Millefiori glass canes or embedding these pieces into transparent glass. This creates an opulent look that hails back to the days of sophisticated table settings and beautiful interiors, and is one of the most recognizable Venetian designs.
The Filigrana technique creates lace-like patterns by embedding thin milk-white or colored rods into transparent glass. A related technique is Reticello, which involves crossing two layers of Filigrana rods at opposite angles. This creates a net pattern with tiny air bubbles at each intersection.
Incalmo is a particularly difficult technique in which two pieces of glass are blown separately and then fused while hot to create a drinking glass with separate colored sections. Sommerso also creates unmixed colors, but here two or more layers of molten glass are submerged within each other and are encased in a clear layer.
Dating back to the glassware crafted in ancient Phoenicia and reaching prominence in the 16th century, the Fenicio glassmaking technique creates wavy or feather-like patterns on blown glass. The artisans apply hot, colored glass threads to a hot-blown glass piece, using a comb to turn the threads into wave-like patterns. The glass is then reheated and blown again to form the pattern.
Gold or silver leaf is sometimes used in Murano drinking glasses to create a shimmering effect. The artisan rolls molten glass over thin sheets of gold or silver leaf. When the glass is blown, the metal tears and stretches, creating a sparkling or web-like pattern.
Tre Fuochi, or ‘three flames’ in English, is a technique invented in the 18th century. The glass is decorated with 24-karat gold leaf, enamel flowers, and delicate relief work. Each of the three decorations needs separate kiln firings, hence the name of the technique. The glass is often brilliant blue, ruby red, or emerald green and looks high-end and classical with the gold filigree and enamel flowers.
Goti di Fornace, or furnace glasses, are handcrafted tumblers that were traditionally made by artisans for their own use to drink water during hard days in the heat of the furnaces with leftover glass. Each artisan created his own design, allowing him to distinguish his glass from others. Today, these colorful tumblers are made for purchase, and they are some of the most popular pieces of Murano Glass. While meant to be functional drinking vessels, they are also sometimes used for decorative purposes.
In the 1950s, Fulvio Bianconi developed Pezzato. With this technique, small, varied colored pieces of glass are melted together to create a quilt-like effect. Today, both vases and glasses in Pezzato technique are the first to attract attention in the windows of Murano Glass shops in Venice.
Murano Glass Artisans Who Make Drinking Glasses
Venini
Venini glassworks was established in 1921 by Milanese lawyer Paolo Venini. The company creates high-end drinking glasses, combining Venetian tradition with modern designs. Their glassware is vibrantly colored, has detailed patterns, and has been made with techniques such as Sommerso and Filigrana.
A highlight of their collections is the Bollicine wine glass, which has a 1925 design featuring delicate and rhythmic grooves that give movement and energy to your table. They have also created champagne flutes using the Bullicante technique to create a bubbled texture. In 1946, legendary designer Gio Ponti created the A Canne striped tumblers as well as the Pezzente tumblers, which have blotches of colored glass. These are applied hot and come in all sorts of colors, including apple green, amber, and sapphire blue.
Seguso
Seguso, one of the oldest glassmaking companies in Murano, creates a selection of luxury Murano drinking glasses, including the Esagonali set of tumblers, which are hexagon-shaped. The Coriandolo series contains sets of different glasses, such as wine glasses and champagne flutes, in various colors and different styles. Many are adorned with gold leaf and delicate etchings.
Marie Brandolini
Parisian-born Marie Brandolini, who moved to Italy when she married a Venetian, revolutionised Murano glass. In 1994, she created the Goto collection, inspired by the Goti di Fornaso technique. It is a line of colorful and intentionally irregular and asymmetrical tumblers. She transformed what used to be workshop leftovers into artisan glass.
With the success of the Goto collection, Marie created other collections such as the Berlingot line, which includes striped candy tumblers and tall glasses.
Italians’ Favored Drinks for Everyday and Holidays
Everyday Life
Italians enjoy socialising, even in daily life. Aperitivo hour is a much-loved custom, usually taking place at some time between 6 and 9 p.m. Italians eat late, and Aperitivo hour is a time for them to unwind after work. They will have a cocktail served with savory snacks such as olives, nuts, bruschetta, cheese, or charcuterie. Some venues even offer a buffet. You pay a set price for the drink with snacks. Aperitivo hour is designed to stimulate the appetite so that you are ready for dinner. It is also a time for conversation with friends and relaxing.
Drinks are typically low-alcohol and bitter or crisp. A favored drink is the Aperol Spritz, which is a mix of Aperol liqueur, Prosecco, and a splash of sparkling water. It is usually served in a large stemmed wine glass or balloon glass. The long stem stops your hand from warming the drink, and the wide bowl allows for plenty of ice and garnishes, such as orange slices.
Campari and soda is another popular Aperitivo. It can be served in a highball glass, ideal for long, carbonated drinks with plenty of ice and a ratio of 1:2 or 1:3 of Campari to soda. This cocktail can also be served in a tumbler for a more concentrated drink.
The Negroni, which is equal parts gin, sweet red vermouth, and Campari, is also favored. It is usually served with ice in a short, tumbler with a wide mouth, allowing you to enjoy the aromatics. It can also be served in a small coupe glass without ice.
If you are looking for a crisp drink, choose a glass of Prosecco. It can be served in either a Champagne flute or in a tulip glass. With a Champagne flute, the drink is kept fizzy by the long and narrow shape, which also concentrates the aroma. Sometimes, Prosecco is served in a wine glass, allowing it to breathe.
When it comes to meals, Italians generally drink wine, even at lunch. At dinner, they commonly start with Prosecco to accompany appetizers, and then have wine with a main course. They tend to drink white wine with fish or chicken, and red wine with meat. House wines are often chosen because in Italy, they are both affordable and high-quality. However, although wine is favored with meals, when it comes to pizza, beer is preferred.
After dinner, a digestivo may be enjoyed. These drinks are believed to aid digestion and settle the stomach. They can be bittersweet, herbaceous, or rich in flavor and are served either in a liqueur or a shot glass. They are generally high in alcohol, such as grappa, which is made from grape pomace. Sambuco is anise-flavored, Montenegro contains 40 herbal botanicals, Amaretto has a sweet almond flavor, and Limoncello is lemon-flavored. These drinks are usually served neat and chilled or sometimes in coffee.
Festivals and Holidays
Italians celebrate festivals and holidays with a mixture of religious traditions, community gatherings, and family celebrations. Friends and family often meet for Aperitivo to enjoy cocktails before a sit-down dinner, where seasonal local foods are usually paired with high-quality regional wines. For memorable occasions, such as New Year’s Eve, birthdays, or weddings, sparkling wines, such as Prosecco or Ferrari Trento, are served. Sweet sparkling wines, including Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante, are paired with desserts.
Christmas celebrations begin in Italy around December 8th, bringing festive markets, nativity scenes, and traditional foods like panettone and pandoro. Festive drinks include Vin Brule (mulled wine) and Bombardino (warm eggnog with brandy).
The next celebration is Carnival (or Carnevale), held just before Lent. There are masked balls, public events, plays, and traditional costumed festivities, with the most famous of these being the Carnival in Venice. A popular drink at this time of year is the Bellini, invented in Venice at Harry’s Bar. It is a mixture of Prosecco and white peach puree and is popular at fancy balls. And of course, this being Venice, many bars, especially upscale ones, serve Bellinis in beautiful Murano glasses.
Easter is known for religious processions and Masses, a lamb dinner, served with bold red wine, and Columba di Pasqua, a dove-shaped cake.
August 15th is the Assumption of Mary, during which Italians celebrate Ferragosto, a major Summer holiday in Italy. People take family vacations, go to the beach, enjoy fireworks, and have large meals with wine. In addition, all year round and especially over the Summer, many Italian towns have festivals celebrating both food and wine.
Italians value their family time, enjoy everyday experiences, and mark special occasions by having meals accompanied by wine. Murano drinking glasses make every gathering and every occasion more special by bringing luxury, sophistication, and style to the table. Their bold colors and intricate details stand out, becoming a focal point in the room. If you want to enjoy La Dolce Vita like Italians do, bring out Murano wine glasses for a dinner party or beautiful champagne flutes for a celebration. They will make every gathering more memorable and spark engaging and meaningful conversations about Venice, Italy, and the art of living the good life.
