Burano, Torcello, and Murano

Let the picture explosion begin.

Day 3 of our trip took us to the Venetian islands. We were very lucky in that a storm that was expected to blow in didn't get us while we were visiting the islands.... no that was saved for day 4. We decided to set out with a strategy when we went to the islands. We did not want to hit up Murano first for several reasons. 1) this is the closest island, so most people would only go to it 2) most people would go to this one first 3) we didn't want to carry glass around all day. Our objective start with the farthest island and work our way in, especially because Burano appealed to us more.

Cruising past Murano

Our first stop took us to the village of Mazzorbo, which is connected to Burano by bridge. This very quiet island doesn't look like it gets the tourism that Burano gets, but is equally pretty with it's diversely colored houses. As we started out early, getting to the island by around 10am, there were very few people stirring outside of a few locals. Although the storm wasn't there and the sun was out, it was a bright and chilly morning....brrrrrr. We walked around the island, which didn't take too long, it takes longer to walk the Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego, but it was tranquil.

Cruising up to Mazzorbo

Even the mortar and stones has shells

Young grasshopper!

Mazzorbo

View of the Dolomite Mountains

When we crossed over to Burano, which has even more brightly painted houses, tourists were beginning to stir. We spotted a cat trying to figure out how to get a bird in a tree, and we photostalked it (no joke- 5 whole minutes). We walked around quite a bit, but we ended up finding a cool glass shop called Lumeart in Burano (https://www.facebook.com/lumeart.venezia), where we bought a bunch of Burano made glass, and talked to the owner's daughter (and a little to her mother as well) for a bit, and we were given a recommendation for lunch. After a half hour we started to walk around further, waiting for it to get closer to 1pm so we could have lunch. We finally gave in to not waiting until 1pm because other people were beginning to fill up the restaurant. We went to Bar Sport, where I enjoyed a shrimp and asparagus spaghetti dish and Brie had a 4 corners pizza with ham, artichoke, mushrooms, and sweet peppers. We of course indulged and had some Prosecco with our meal (this seemed to be Brie's favorite alcoholic beverage on this trip- besides trying all the wine). After a leisurely meal, we ended up going back to the glass shop to buy more glass. This time the owner was there and we were able to see him make the figurines and other glass work they sold in the shop, including using the 'made in Burano' stamp they included on their work. It's nice to buy local and support local artisans, not the made in China glass that is actually fairly prevalent in Venice. We also stopped and got a piece of glass candy at another shop. I might have to take another picture of that some other time, as it was inconvenient before, and they are still wrapped in bubble wrap. I had been eying some art when we got onto Burano, and we finally stopped to take a look, some of my favorites were just prints, but I ended up getting a small, vibrant watercolor. This entire island is gorgeous, if it weren't for the excessive tourists I'm sure they get, this would be a nice island to retire on.

Drying out umbrellas-Burano

Perfect day!

Down the canal

Another shot

Laundry day

Bright green grass as contrast

Flooded pavements

Cat stalking part 1

To the lagoon

A market right on the boat

The owner of Lumeart, a very friendly fellow

Our next stop was Torcello, there isn't a winter spot on the main vaparetto to Torcello, so our return was to Burano afterwards. Torcello is one of the smaller islands, very little is developed,just a few restaurants on the way to the cathedral. Torcello is the longest continuously inhabited Venetian islands and once had the largest population of the Republic of Venice. Torcello had many cats to photostalk, ok, we didn't stalk these ones, but I did get a couple of cute photos. The tower on the island which can be seen from afar was closed, and while we walked around the cathedral, we didn't go in. It was quickly approaching 4pm and we wanted to go to Murano before everything was closed, but it was interesting to hit Torcello, if but for an hour.

View of Torcello from Burano

We have arrived

One of several cats on the island

Torcello's cathedral

Sculpture garden and vineyard

Random lizards all over

Torcello Cathedral

On the boat ride to Murano, sunset was falling, and we could see the Dolomite Mountains go from being white capped to being pink capped from the hues of the sun. They were clear as a bell on this day. By the time we started to explore Murano, we had maybe 15 minutes of sunlight. I found this glass dish/plate from artisans Ragazzi and C. (http://www.ragazzimurano.it/piatti.html), which was one of a kind, I got this blue one after debating between it, and a smaller version. Brie got a glass that looked like someone had wet glass on their hand and smeared it around like a rough paint brush texture, but in reds and oranges (bought from Antica Vetraria di Bon Paolo). Some of the initial colored sherry glasses I was looking at ended up being produced in Italy, but not in Murano, which made the choice not to get them fairly easy. When every shop had them, it was kinda like 'eh' I can get these anywhere. After our big purchases, we didn't really see anything from the windows that we had to have, so we returned back to Venice. That evening we had dinner at Hosteria Al Vecio Bragosso. I got sea bass with salad, and I have to hand it to them, it was elegant watching them remove the cooked head, tail and scales. I disliked having to watch for bones every bite though, it made eating it quite exhausting, especially since I ended up not being much of a fan of this particular fish (not due to the restaurant, I'm just 99% vegetarian- although you wouldn't know it by all the shrimp I had in Venice!). Brie had an Angler fish in balsamic vinegar with grilled vegetable. We had a regional red wine, a called valpolicella classico. For the first part of our meal there was an older French couple next to us that Brie talked to for a bit, she ended up using quite a bit of French while visiting Italy ironically enough. I had a lemon curd cake for dessert with an apple gelee and whipped cream. Brie had a carrot hazelnut tort cake with red chicory. That was it for us for the night.

The lagoon at sunset

The Dolomites turning pink

Cruising up to Murano

One of the public Murano glass sculptures

Murano shops at sundown

Glass and more glass

99 luftballoons

Another public glass display

Pretty glass window

Zoomed in shot of the window

another zoomed in shot of the window

A 3rd glass sculpture

Murano on a rainy day

Glass shop owner intently working on a project

View of another portion of Murano

Day 4: So, we both dreamed of glass candy all night after buying the pretty piece on Burano the previous day. It was a rainy day, the storm hit, but we were on a mission to find candy. So much on a mission that we went to 7 different glass shops to find different kinds to collect. We went back to Murano to take a better look at what was there, going dangerously back into the shop where Brie bought her glass the day before, and spending much too much money on glass candy there... and a few other places as well. We also came across glass seashell which were just spectacularly realistic. I'm glad we spent more time on Burano the day before, while the weather was good, because Murano is a better island for rainy days, and it isn't as much of a walk around island, but a shopping island where all the tours go. In fact, although I looked into tours of the islands, I'm really glad that we didn't do any, because we had more fun without one, and without the pressure to buy stuff (not that we didn't anyway), but the tours that we came across had a bunch of people who were pretty much steered into one or two major stores where the sales agents put on their tactics, when all you want to do is look. Murano did have a few interesting public glass sculptures, and a few of them were better looking in the darkness of light with how they were lit up, versus bright daylight, but it was a nice touch to an island which is otherwise just a giant glass product shopping center.

End of story: Burano is my favorite island!