Daily Life in Italy: Torcello, Burano and Murano

We woke up to cloudy skies, but a fairly warm temperature in Venice this morning.

Our first destination for the day, Burano. Katrina really loves Burano and we missed it on our last visit due to lack of time.

As we neared Burano, Brandon talked us into visiting Torcello first. He's been wanting to visit this island for a long time, but we've never made it there. When we arrived in Burano, we caught another boat for the short trip to Torcello.

Approaching the island of Murano. We had to switch boats here to continue on to Burano.

While waiting for the vaporetto to Burano, tour guide Brandon reads to Nana about the island.

Brandon enjoys the vaporetto rides

Riding to Torcello with Nana and Papa

Torcello is the birthplace of Venice, where the first mainland refugees settled, escaping from the barbarians. Today, it is the least populated and least developed of the islands.

Brandon checks out the 'wildlife' on Torcello

The devil's bridge. named because it is said to have been built overnight by the devil himself.

The main canal into Torcello

Attila's Throne. Attila has nothing to do with this marble seat, which instead was used by the bishop.

Church of Santa Fosca

Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta

We caught the vaporetto back to Burano. Burano is the island of lace, hand stiched lace. The island was probably inhabited in Roman times. Burano was always considered less important than Torcello, but in the XVI century it began to make a considerable contribution to the Venetian Republic...lace. Burano is also the most colorful of the islands, with its brightly colored houses - painted by the women so that their husbands recognised them from afar when they returned from fishing trips. Today there are nearly 4,000 inhabitants.

Heading to Burano

We walked around Burano, did a little shopping, ate a few cookies and bought some Murano glass. Mom and Dad loved the colorful houses and the quiet canals. We had a great conversation with a glass maker that topped off our visit.

Lace

Colorful Burano

Burano's leaning bell tower

On to Murano, the island of glass. Murano is the largest island in the lagoon. It was inhabited in Roman times by refugees of Altino who were fleeing from the Huns. In its early days, the island was an important trade center, full of mills and salt mines. In 1921 glass furnaces were moved from Venice because the hight temperatures posed a high risk of fires. Since that time the island has specialized in the production of fine glass.

Murano

We wandered down the main canal from one end of town to the other, then caught a vaporetto back to Venice. After dropping off our purchases at the room, we walked through Venice to the Rialto area where we had dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. We also did a little shopping along the way.

Views from the Rialto Bridge

Chinese for dinner

Spices...

...and sweets

After dinner we headed back to the room. Mom, Dad and Brandon relaxed in the room while Katrina and I headed back out into nighttime Venice to take pictures. Katrina likes taking night shots in Venice. We were out for about 2 hours before sleepieness took hold of us.