Places: BURANO, The coloured island of lace



Burano is an island in the Northern Venetian Lagoon, 11 Km northeastern far from Murano and Venice, to which it is connected by the Canale Bisatto - Canale Carbonera - Scomenzera San Giacomo's trail: this route takes 45 minutes by boat. This island is easily reachable also from Treporti (10 minutes) and Punta Sabbioni (30 minutes), two Cavallino-Treporti's resorts which overlook on the lagoon. Today in Burano there are around 3000 inhabitants.
All visitors of Burano remain intrigued by the many colours of houses that are reflected into the green waters of channels, by the Oblique Bell Tower, by the tranquility and the calmness with which the elderly ladies embroider by their tombolo, while they are laughing and chatting in squares among them. It seems to be in paradise. Children who dart freely with their bicycles, balconies with multicolored flowers, fishermen who put up fresh fish from their traditional boats.
Just gone ashore from actv boat, you will be in a green lawn where a Remigio Barbaro’s solemn sculpture is placed. Pursuing the shores you will arrive to center of the Island: Galuppi Square; here neighbourly ladies, invite the most curious visitors to come into their shops to admire the lace working. Then, if you need to refresh yourself, there are a lot of typical "trattoria buranella" where you can eat very fresh and good fish. If your time is short you can opt for a delicious icecream in a bar or a typical Burano’s sweet dish (the most famous are the “Bussola” and the “Esse”) in a pastry store, enjoying it until the end of Piazza Galuppi where San Martino Bishop’s Church is located: inside, in addition to a lot of important works, there is a famous opera of Gian Battista Tiepolo. Sideways is located the Santa Barbara’s Chapel.
Always in the same square there is the “Museo del Merletto” (Lace Museum), the Town Hall, a well made of Istria’s stone and the Baldassarre Galuppi’s sculpture made by Remigio Barbaro, the well-known sculptor from Burano.
Sideways the church, some stands offer local souvernirs, Murano glass products and venetian masks for a cheap price. Moreover every Wednesday morning here the street market takes place and two minutes far from the center you can take a look at the fish market, where to see the typical venetian lagoon sea-food.
Among Burano’s tiny streets there are a lot of “capitelli” (capitals) placed in the calli entrances and, searching for them, surely you will bump into the most famous and coloured house in the island: “la Casa di Bepi Suà” (the house of Joseph Sweaty).
The typical Burano’s houses are mainly squared-shaped and are divided into two or three floors.
The different colours of the houses, which today rappresent the our island main feature, at a previous time was useful to delimit the properties. Notwithstanding an ancient legend narrates that fishermen painted their houses to see them from long distance when they were far away for fishing.