Bright Venice is the island of Burano
I looked at Turpravda reviews about Venice and found a strange thing - there are no reports about this island and there are no photos either. Need to fix; -)
October is often a gloomy time: autumn after all. True, we had only one cloudy day and we decided to dedicate it to the brightest "microdistrict" of Venice, the island of Burano. I saw a lot of bright houses in the photo from the island, they don’t look old, simple huts of 2-3 floors, without facade stucco and other frills.
Everything that Wiki says about the island: the island quarter of Venice, located at a distance of 7 km from the city center, next to Torcello, with a population of approx. 4000 inhabitants Known for its brightly colored houses. Since the 16th century, the company has specialized in the production of lace. Lace production technology is believed to have been exported by the Venetians from the Eastern Mediterranean. The famous composer Galuppi was a native of Burano. Until 1923, Burano was considered a separate city from Venice, like Murano.
In addition to colorful buildings, tourists are attracted to Burano by the Venetian Lace Museum and the Church of San Martino with an inclined 52-meter campanile.
Well, not too much)
So, in order. Burano and Murano are one "tourist" destination. And many tourists start their route not from Burano, but from Murano. And a more promoted name, and closer geographically to the "main" Venice, and transport to Murano runs more often, and even from the center (San Marco). I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, but I think that Murano island can be skipped altogether if there is not much time and if you are not going to buy something exclusive from Murano glass. We left Murano "for later", and "later" we were too lazy to inspect it in its entirety.
So to immediately get to Burano, this is vaporetto line 12 (from F. Nove), which is in the Canareggio area (located in the northeast, if you look at the map of Venice, almost opposite San Michele).
Only this route (sometimes there is infa that there is a direct route from San Marco, but the owner of our apartment said that only line 12, and from San Marco is with a transfer to Murano). First, at the 12th stop at Murano, then Torcello, then Burano, only about 30 minutes to sail. There is a separate route between the islands of Murano and Burano - we sailed back in such a boat, but I don’t remember the line number. Until Murano is almost empty, and there comes a crowd of tourists.
There are also many tourists on the island of Burano, although the bulk of people move along the main channel and shops. In the depths of the streets there is almost no one, and the houses are just as bright.
The island itself is not large and for many tourists a few hours of walking will be enough. Bright, festive, unusual, but rather monotonous. The houses are really painted in such a way that the neighboring colors are always contrasting and bright. Even on a cloudy day, it is very beautiful here.
There are many tourists, but they all dart around only during the day. Almost no one in the evening.
The island has its own "Leaning" tower - at the local church, it also "falls", however, the angle is a bit smaller. There is a lace museum, but we did not go there, although the photos on the Internet were interesting. Our male half "banned" the idea of the museum, offering to tempt the local fish. I must say that the thought of food, namely fish, comes as soon as you step on the shore: the smell of fried fish is almost everywhere on the island. Maybe we were just hungry, but it was here that we decided to eat first and then take a walk. There are many restaurants, prices seemed to us like in Venice, if not higher. Everything is delicious, but as my husband says lately, “we weren’t surprised. ” A plate of fried seafood, battered or grilled fish are the most common dishes - 12-15 euros. And above, up to 20-25 euros a portion. As always, almost everywhere in Italy immediately + 12% service. Sometimes also serving additionally - 1.5-2.5 euros / person.
Of course, there are cheaper places. They have delicious homemade wine (well, the one that is “but name” is 0.5-1 l in a decanter and is cheap). Shmurdyak was expected, but everywhere, including here, such wine was cool.
In addition to exploring this island, you can buy souvenirs, here they are somewhat different from the Venetian ones. Masks are more expensive, but Murano glass is cheaper than in Venice, we observed master glaziers who blow all sorts of knick-knacks right in their shops. It was here that there were very high quality and beautiful local souvenirs (not Chinese). As for lace and tablecloths, the prices are high. But this category of souvenirs is not cheap anywhere. Here they write traditional Buranese lace, tablecloths everywhere. Yeah. I go and what do I see? That's right, everything is the same as in Budapest (still fresh in my memory), and in Austria I saw such and many other places. Perhaps not all options for tablecloths, but most of them I saw more than once.
In the evening, I sat down on the Internet and with difficulty, but found the same information (albeit from the OBS series) that now Buransky laces are made in the same place, in China, but according to "ancient" traditions. Like, women in Burano now do not want to engage in weaving: a labor-intensive process and unprofitable. Of course, not all Chinese, there are also local ones, but you can’t tell right off the bat. I don't know who to believe...
In Venice itself, I immediately noticed that there were no cats in the city. Italy without cats, and in general, a city without my beloved cats is not right. And Burano is full of fat and lazy cats that you can squeeze and take pictures. Undoubtedly, for some, this is another plus to go here; -)
We spent almost the whole day here and did not get to Murano. Or rather, they got there, but did not want to waste time on this island, because after the luxurious Venice and the festively bright Burano, the island of Murano seemed gloomy and uninteresting to us.
We walked about 10 minutes and returned to the boat to Venice. I don't know, maybe next time we'll visit.
I recommend visiting the islands in this order: Burano and then Murano. And visiting Burano is a must.
