Venice is busy and noisy and after two weeks it can get a bit claustrophobic. So today we left the main island and visited Burano, famous for fishermen, lace, cats and biscuits. A lovely mix. It's a real picture postcard little island. Every house is painted a different colour. The architecture is so different to Venice main.
Everything is on a much smaller scale, and after walking past massive churches over vast piazzas for a few weeks it feels like a toy town. I couldn't tell if all the houses and boats were actually quite small or if I had just become accustomed to everything being big. An American tourist I overheard summed it up perfectly "Oh my god, this is like so not even real".
The pace of life is slow and relaxed and it's extremely quiet and peaceful. It was a very welcome change from the hustle and bustle of Venice and we wandered around happily. Bearing in mind it was a Monday afternoon at 4pm, we were surprised to find the post office closed. Infact not much was happening and no one seemed very inclined to rush or do much. It has a a lazy island feel. I don't mean this in a bad way. It's so lazy that when somone wants to sell their house on Burano they just put up a laminated piece of paper on their front door.
Even the main bell tower can't be bothered to stand up straight.
And they've put up new bridges so that you don't have to walk up any steps. This does mean that boats can't get down the canals, but that's ok because their captains are all at home snoozing anyway.
Having said this it's amazing what the people of Burano CAN be bothered to do. They spend time fashioning little aeroplanes out of plastic bottles...
...and building precarious loft conversions...
...and gerenally painting anything that stays still long enough a bright colour. (this picture doesn't do it justice but basically every bit of the metal in this alley is multicoloured).
This water taxi owner has gone to great lengths to make his waiting room feel homely. He has placed a carpet by the landing stage and there is a telephone if you need to call him to come and take you to you to your destination with a sign explaining the procedure.
The feline population were a little more active, welcoming visitors and allowing us to stroke them a bit before turning around and going back to sleep.
We noticed that one had been chasing a bird through wet concrete.
It was a very lazy, chilled out day and just what I needed after rushing around.
As we made our way back to Venice there was a big rain storm with thunder and lightening. We were impressed how this man in his boat heading the other way was prepared for the occaision.
Oh, I nearly forgot, I'm sure you were wondering where you had mislaced your bread hammock and small lace apron perfect for bottles of wine or culinary genius pets...well I found them.
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