Lace Museum

This guide to the Lace Museum in Venice starts in 1872, when a frozen lagoon left Burano's fishing families with nothing to sell, and Venetian noblewomen turned to an old island craft, needle lace, to try to save them. It centers on Cencia Scarpariola, the last woman on the island who still remembered how to make it, and the campaign, backed by Queen Margherita, to bring her in to teach. Look closely at the pieces on display, every knot worked by hand, needle and thread alone.