Italy

In Italy, ordinary sand was not good enough for the clearest glass in the world.

On Murano, glassmakers developed cristallo in the fifteenth century, an exceptionally pure and transparent glass.

For the finest glass, white quartz pebbles were carefully selected, including stones from the River Ticino. They were crushed into a fine powder and melted into glass.

It started with quartz. Crushed into sand. Melted into glass.