Monday 4 April 2016

Murano and Burano - Day 13

A nice slow start to the day, I finally found coffee here in Venice just after 8, we had breakfast then caught a ferry over to the islands of Murano and Burano where we spent the day. Murano is known for its glass making expertise and Burano is know for its lace work and multi coloured houses.

On Murano we had a glass blowing demonstration where he made a miniature horse in about 3 minutes. We then toured the shops and galleries of Murano, grabbed a few bites to eat on the shore overlooking the lagoon and then caught another ferry over to Burano which is at the north end of the lagoon where we browsed more shops, had some lunch and looked at some of the lace work.

The islands of Murano and Burano are everything that Venice is, they have the canals and shops, and everything that Venice isn't. The streets are wider, the streets are cleaner and there are far less people. First thing I noticed on Burano was the abundance of cats. There seemed to be cats everywhere you looked. Googling this, it would seem there is a cat colony that lives in one of the churches there. They are extremely tame and are not at all bothered by all the tourists passing them by, and quite enjoy sitting around the restaurants waiting for food scraps to be thrown to them. Burano also has its own leaning tower.

The ferry was quite crowded and I still had my SCAM-O-METER running on high. Both Sharon and I spotted this dodgy looking guy in his 20's by himself who to both of us looked like he was scanning around for victims, moving around the boat and had what looked like more than one wallet in his pockets. I'd say he noticed we were tracking him and then then settled into one corner for the rest of the trip. Sure enough when we arrived in Burano he got off and got back into the queue area for the next ferry back.

We spent quite a bit of time on the ferries between the islands, from Burano back to Venice was over 1.5 hours. This boat was far less crowded so we just sat upstairs and watched as Italy sailed on by out the window. It was a really pleasant way to spend the afternoon. Once back in Venice we caught the local Vaporetto back to San Stae and walked back to the apartment. Paul went to church at St Marks and when he returned and went out for dinner. I had a nice steak with peppercorns, Sharon had a delicious lasagna, Paul had the same seafood dish that Sharon had last night and Emma had pizza again.

It's my last night in Venice, I need to get to Paris a day earlier than the others to get the Paris apartment key. I've got one night in Turin tomorrow night on the journey.

Contented kitty on Burano


Glass blowing on Murano



Cats of Burano




Murano glass with canal reflections


Colourful houses of Burano



Looking down the canals



Emma in front of one of the coloured houses




Leaning tower of Burano







Cruising around the lagoon


Sharon's dinner

My Dinner



Not sure why everyone else is dressed like its the middle of winter, was a sunny day, got close to 20c. Bumped into another Aussie couple from Wollongong, and he was wearing shorts and t-shirt too.