GLASS : How could anyone visit Venice and not be attracted by the shops selling and making glass? The nearby island of Murano is famous throughout the world for its master glass craftsmen, but throughout the city you can find characteristic shops and attractive displays featuring glass beads, coloured objects and artistic creations, vases, trays and lamps representing genuine works of art. Then there are the souvenirs to take home with you, the tiny animals, small vases, rings, "murrine, trinkets, brooches and glass bead mosaics TEXTILES: Venice in days gone by... with their woollen shawls around their shoulders, the women sit round in a circle working at their embroidery and lace. Venice is also famous throughout the world for its textiles, carpets and the lace which finds its full expression on the neighbouring island of Burano. In memory of its history trading on the silk roads, the city keeps its textile traditions alive. Damasks,shimmering silks,embroidered blouses... Venice is the best place to enjoy the love for work still done by hand! PAPER: Venice is also a world of paper, offering a wealth of opportunities for book plate and parchment enthusiasts to add to their collections. Just about everywhere in the city you can find craftsmen offeringleather-bound booksand the paper of bygone days, still made by hand. Then there are the personalised stamps, the sealing wax, the marbled or decorated paper wrapping the covers of notebooks and diaries. The only problem is which to choose, with patterns reflecting the colours of Byzantine mosaics and the shapes of the tiles in the Gothic palazzi. MASKS:The Venice of Carnival: the masks coquetishly posing for the admiring lenses of the tourists run wild. But you can also take a piece of the city's carnival traditions home with you. Venice is full of shops making and selling masks. The most attractive are those from the commedia dell'arte or the bizarre figures of Arcinboldo. If you are lucky enough to get a peep inside the workshop, you can sometimes see the master craftsmen at work, preparing the papier mach? and plaster and painting the intricate patterns. GOLD:Gold and Venice have been inseparably linked right from the early centuries of the Serenissima when the covers of devotional books were covered with gold and years of work went into finishing masterpieces such as the Pala d'Oro altar screen in the San Marco Basilica. Today, master goldsmiths continue this tradition, drawing on both classical and modern motifs. The refinement and good taste of the workmanship make the gold of Venice famous throughout the world. Take a short walk through Rialto, under Le Procuratie in Piazza San Marco or through the sestieri. The goldsmiths' shops with their resplendent windows will tempt you and recount a little of the history of this unique city.  WOOD:The Venetians have been working wood for millennia. The Serenissima imported timber from the forests of Cadore and Dalmatia to make their warships, typical "bragossi" lagoon boats and famous gondolas. And, particularly in the case of the gondola, these traditions live on with "boatyards" where master ship wrights still hand down the art from father to son as they have always done. There are still cabinet makers and carpenters active in Venice, their workshops hidden amongst the narrow lanes and small squares. Here you will find them intent on gilding a statue, mending a piece of antique furniture, carving "forcole" (rowlocks) or constructing oars. Then there is the more modern world of the souvenir with its colourful wooden animals, models of typical lagoon boats, jigsaw puzzles and marquetry pictures..