Burano

     We visited the island of Burano one morning while in Venice. It's at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon. Burano is about four miles from Venice, and it was a 45-minute water bus ride to get there from nearby St. Mark's Square. My understanding, from our guide, is that it was a fishing village at one time. Venice has strict color schemes allowed for its housing. But Burano received an exception for their housing colors so that the fisherman could find their way home in the heavy fogs in the lagoon. Burano is an extremely colorful island. I believe that there are still fisherman here but tourism is the primary economy now.

     Some years back, Burano filled in one of its five canals and made their main road and their only town square, Piazza Baldassare Galuppi. There is a statue of Baldassare Galuppi in the square along with the Lace Museum, Town Hall, the church of San Martino with its leaning campanile or bell tower and a painting by Giambattista Tiepol, plus many restaurants and stores. Our guide assured us that the square would be packed with people by noon.

     Burano still has its other canals that separate its four islands.

     Burano rose to prominence in the 16th century when women began making lace with needles. Leonardo da Vinci visited here in 1481 and purchased a cloth for the main altar of the Duomo di Milano. Lace was soon exported across Europe. The trade declined in the 18th century but was revived in 1872 when a school of lacemaking was opened on Burano. Lacemaking is still done on Burano. The Lace Museum was closed the day we visited here but we did visit a lacemaker's shop. Vicky was quite impressed. A woman from this store gave us information which included showing us a lace doily smaller than my hand that she said took 10 days to make and cost over $1,000 euros. I didn't ask how much for a tablecloth.

     On a side note, we did buy a tablecloth in Burano, but it was from another store and it wasn't lace. It is an incredibly colorful tablecloth, like Burano.

     We had some free time on Burano. While Vicky checked out more of the lace making and lace shops, I wandered off. I crossed a bridge to another small island and found the Ristorante Venissa, a Michelin Star and Green Michelin Star restaurant and wine resort. It was still mid morning but I noted that they had a seven-course or a ten-course tasting menu as well as wine pairings. Oh well, next time... It also had vineyards and a great vegetable garden with lots of artichokes and other things.