Lying 7 kilometers off of Venice is the Island of Burano. It, like Murano, was settled by the Romans. However, unlike Murano, it enjoyed none of the privileges that Murano had and remained somewhat of an afterthought until the 16th century, when women on the island began to make lace with needles, importing the trade from Venetian-ruled Cyprus. The island became so famous that Leonardo Da Vinci even visited the island to purchase cloth for the main altar of the Duomo di Milano. The lace quickly grew in popularity but began to die because the traditional method of lace making is extremely time-consuming and expensive.
As we pulled up to the dock, we were instantly amazed by the colors of the island. It turns out that if someone wants to paint their house, they have to send a request to the city and the city tells them what colors they can paint their house. This comes from the golden age of the cities development and follows a very specific system of color selection. This has been done for hundreds of years and there is no reason to assume that it will change anytime soon.
We got off the boat and were greeted by this statue.
With the day getting later, most of the shops had closed but we found a few lace stores open but we found most of the joy from island stemming from simply walking down the streets, taking pictures and soaking up the town. The rain eventually forced us into a pizzeria, though, while sitting down enjoying our dinner, I couldn’t help but think this island would be amazing to spend a nice day at. There is a campanile that can be climbed but we couldn’t go while we were there because it was closed and the rain would have ruined our view, though I anticipate it being an amazing sight.
As the sun had set, shops were closed and things were starting to draw to an end, we hopped back on the Vapporetto and made the trip back to Venice.
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