Day 262 - Venice to Burano

Time to leave the hustle and bustle of Venice in high tourist season and seek out a quieter location for a couple of days of rest and relaxation. The wonderful thing is that Venice is surrounded by lots of other islands accessible by vaporetto in under an hour (and usually much less). So, we are off to a small hotel on the island of Mazzorbo for the next three days.

The hotel is the Venissa, and is situated on a wine resort and vineyard on the main canal through the island. I'm letting you in on a little secret here: if you want to visit Venice, this is really a wonderful place to stay. It gets you out of the busyness of Venice, while still being in a beautiful and romantic place complete with history and canal-side walks.

We chose to be here as in a couple of days we will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary. The resort while small has two restaurants, one of which has a Michelin Star. We haven't decided if we are going to partake of the 5 to 7 course options on that restaurant's menu, along with wine pairings! Will keep you informed.

A modern bridge connects us to the next island, Burano -- a must-see on any visit to Venice. A rainbow range of colours are used here to paint the homes, and adding to it are balconies of beautiful flowers. While the reason for the use of colour is often attributed to letting fishermen see their homes from the sea, it may in reality be for a more legal reason as the colours help to distinguish property lines on the connected homes. However, despite the apparent variety, not just any colour can be used; anyone wanting to paint their homes must get approval first from the government.

Burano has its own leaning tower or campanile: it is 53 metres high and leans 1.83 metres with respect to its axis. But in reality, these are everywhere!

This tiny island has a population of about 2,800 people, much greater than the neighbouring Mazzorba despite being less than half the size. It is said that people have lived here since the 6th Century. It wasn't until the 16th Century that the economy really took off -- thanks to the ladies of the island. Their lace-making needlework become world-renown, particularly among European royalty and nobles. When you think of paintings with those intricate and fine lace colours, most likely they were Burano lace. At it's height of popularity, lace was being produced in assembly-line-like production on the island. It was tedious and mentally straining work: at one time, one "lunatic asylum" in Venice listed among its inmates 30 Burano lace makers.

Today, you can still purchase the lace although now it is primarily limited to the edges of tablecloths and pillow cases. The island also produces very expensive hand-woven linen, much of which is purchased for use in high-end hotels and on yachts. We didn't need anymore linen for the yacht, so no purchases this trip.

But we did need seafood...and Burano is noted for it! If you are looking for fresh, just-out-of-the-sea flavour, this is the place to be. Mmmmm!