Tuscan Traveler took a brief sojourn in Venice with a very short wish list. The first priority was to eat as much great seafood as possible. That done, the search was on for the glass menagerie that includes tiny hand-made mosquitoes.
Bruno Amadi presides over a zoological garden of fragile plants, animals, fish, birds and frogs in a narrow back ally near the San Polo church. But the bugs are the best – a house fly so life-like you will want to swat it, mosquitoes balancing on spindly legs thinner than a human hair, and beetles in iridescent colors.
Mr. Amadi works with glass rods (lumi) and a flame to create his masterpieces. He first consults reference books and the National Geographic Magazine to assure that his creations are true to life. He will spend hours getting the spots on a Poison Dart Frog just right.
Venice is full of glass, but after you see the work of Bruno Amadi and almost pick up one of his pea pods to savor the spring sweetness, you will never be satisfied with fake ladybugs and seahorses seen in windows around every other corner.
Lume di Amadi
Address: San Polo 2747, 30100 Venezia (Vaporetto Stop: San Sivestro)
Hours: Mon. – Sat. 9am – 12:30pm, 3pm – 6pm (wise to call ahead)