After researching Murano and Burano, we were absolutely sure we wanted to visit Burano but not so sure of the other. We also desperately wanted to beat the crowds, so today's plan was to take an early ferry (8.40am) to Burano, explore there, and if we felt like it maybe we would head over to Murano afterwards. Our ferry passes were like a golden ticket to the city - we could choose where and when we'd like to go!
So our alarms went off pretty early, as the Nova ferry port was a good 20 minute walk from our accom. We also thought we'd pick up some sandwiches for lunch to try to save some money. We arrived at the De Spar (a very fancy Spar - in an old theatre! No photos allowed, and you had to purchase something to be able to leave!) and grabbed a couple of pre-made sandwiches and an energy drink... I was feeling pretty shattered this morning!
We continued the walk to the ferry terminal, getting there with plenty of time. The ferry arrived only a few minutes before we were set to leave, and we opted to sit inside this time as there wouldn't be too much of a view. On the way, Dan and I looked up the abandoned insane asylums - of which there are 2 - around Venice. One you can visit, the other is haunted and not open for visitors. The ferry raced across the water in what looked like a lane - the whole sea around the islands is filled with wooden pyres marking the way - I assume as a kind of traffic control. We passed a couple of tiny islands with crumbling buildings on them, and we passed a low boggy island which made me wonder if that's what Venice looked like when it was first inhabited around 400AD. Did you know that all of Venice is built on wooden stakes? No wonder it's sinking.
We made a few stops at some islands on the way, including Murano. A lot of people got off here, as to be expected, but almost all of them were wearing a badge saying GAS. We later discovered there was a Glass Artists Society conference happening on Munaro happening at this exact time.
Our first destination was Bunaro. This island town is known for 2 (maybe 3) main things:
So our alarms went off pretty early, as the Nova ferry port was a good 20 minute walk from our accom. We also thought we'd pick up some sandwiches for lunch to try to save some money. We arrived at the De Spar (a very fancy Spar - in an old theatre! No photos allowed, and you had to purchase something to be able to leave!) and grabbed a couple of pre-made sandwiches and an energy drink... I was feeling pretty shattered this morning!
We continued the walk to the ferry terminal, getting there with plenty of time. The ferry arrived only a few minutes before we were set to leave, and we opted to sit inside this time as there wouldn't be too much of a view. On the way, Dan and I looked up the abandoned insane asylums - of which there are 2 - around Venice. One you can visit, the other is haunted and not open for visitors. The ferry raced across the water in what looked like a lane - the whole sea around the islands is filled with wooden pyres marking the way - I assume as a kind of traffic control. We passed a couple of tiny islands with crumbling buildings on them, and we passed a low boggy island which made me wonder if that's what Venice looked like when it was first inhabited around 400AD. Did you know that all of Venice is built on wooden stakes? No wonder it's sinking.
We made a few stops at some islands on the way, including Murano. A lot of people got off here, as to be expected, but almost all of them were wearing a badge saying GAS. We later discovered there was a Glass Artists Society conference happening on Munaro happening at this exact time.
Our first destination was Bunaro. This island town is known for 2 (maybe 3) main things:
- Colourful houses lining the canals, very unlike the rest of Venice
- Lace
- Wine. Wine is actually associated with the neighbouring island, but they are connected by a walking bridge so I am including it under Burano.
We arrived a little after 9am and alighted with the few remaining people on board. The first thing I noticed was grass - Venice has little green grass, and it's in designated park areas. After a short walk, we burst out onto our first canal - and saw the beautiful, colourful houses. I am so happy we came here! I squealed, as Dan and I took a hundred pictures. The day was a bit overcast, but the clouds were a little dramatic and some blue was trying to peek through.
We took a lot of photos with barely anyone else in the background, and the continued on. I don't even want to know how many photos I took...the colourful houses, the reflections, the water, the people starting to come out of their houses and begin their days. A man loading up his boat while his two dogs stood on the canal side and barked at him. Old men walking slowly along the edge of the canal, stopping for a chat. Ladies opening up the windows to their houses. People putting their rubbish out. Shops slowly starting to open.
We walked the full length around the island, and through many of the inside streets too. All of the houses were painted terrific colours and we couldn't get enough. Hot pink. Peacock green. Mustard yellow. Every shade of blue. Hot purple. Even grey, which was quite a nice contrast, especially when the house had bright pink flowers in the window. The sun peeked through a little more, and the day was warm and beautiful.
Eventually we reached the main stretch and saw it was overrun with people. The next boatload must have arrived, and the people continued to flow in. Time to make our exit. I had a quick look in a lace shop and decided the lace was definitely out of my price range...a dress I was slightly in love with was over €200. Sadly that's a no!
We walked back to the ferry terminal, and I insisted we eat one of our sandwiches. To the left was the bridge over to the neighbouring island, officially called Mazzorbo. Marisela had mentioned the island next door had a winery, and suddenly we popped out into it. It was strange, seeing so much life when the last day and a bit was mostly surrounded by marble and brick.
Rows and rows of grape vines, cherry trees, rose bushes, artichokes and all sorts of other plants were in abundance here, and we were free to just walk through at our leisure. Along the way were little sign posts explaining the Vernissa area and the incredible wine they make there. This made Dan and I pretty keen to try this rare wine, but we were quite sure it would be out of our price range. There was a Michelin starred restaurant, and another restaurant on site. The Michelin one didn't have prices, so one can guess that if you have to ask, you can't afford it.
We continued on and found the other restaurant, with tables outside. The tables had little bundles of twigs where cutlery should be. This should have been a giveaway. I led the way inside - I was curious about this wine, although it was only about 11.30am. It was deserted inside and I found a menu, and had a quick leaf through. €25 for a glass, and bottles starting at definitely too much. Unfortunately my leaf through wasn't quite quick enough and a well dressed waited spotted me, coming over.
Either the waiter was reserving judgement, or Dan and I looked posh enough that we might have been able to afford to eat and drink there. He told us in great detail about the history of and the method for producing the rare wine, of which they only make up to 4000 bottles per year from a grape that was thought to be extinct, and which it was so unlikely it would grow in the salty soil - but it ended up thriving. He continued to explain about the golf leaf stuck to each 500ml bottle and how it was sourced by the last known family who can do such a thing in the region.
Dan and I smiled and nodded and oohed and ahhed at appropriate points, and when he gestured we should take a table, I said that it is a little early for wine (Me? Never...) but that we will go for a short walk and come back closer to lunch time. This perplexed him a little, and he insisted on giving me a business card so I could ring and make a reservation when I was ready to return...which Dan and I had no intention of.
As delicious as it sounded, and as much as I like wine (dunno if you've noticed that?) €25 for 70ml of wine is ever-so-slightly out of our current price range. That's 5 not-even-bottom-shelf bottles of wine. That's closer to 13 bottles of our usual price range bottle of wine....
Turns out though that when we made our speedy exit, we popped out right next to a ferry terminal. We only had a short wait before a ferry came past, headed to MURANO - VENIZIA, so we jumped on. We decided we would visit Murano after all, eating our final sandwich on the journey.
I had read to expect to be hassled the moment you jumped off the ferry, but this wasn't the case for us. I think it was because everyone on the island was so distracted by the GAS conference - the shops already had willing participants! We jumped off and just followed the crowd. This island is no where near as beautiful as the others, although it is filled with canals. The buildings are more plain brick or factories.
As we walked down the main street, we stopped to watch a man in an open door creating a glass product, however this was all the glass blowing/making that we saw this day. Continuing on, we found the main stretch, and just walked along, peeking in some shop windows, occasionally going inside. There were some massive sculptures that were quite impressive, but most of it was the same store to store. Some stores were obviously hand made by the artist inside, which was quite lovely.
We found a shop that also had an attached gallery, so we spent some time wandering through this. The store itself seemed a bit nicer than the others, and we ended up buying a few little glass trinkets. We were both getting pretty weary of looking in shop windows, and we didn't want to buy anything else. I spotted an icecream store down a side street which sold homemade gelato - we got a couple of scoops each and returned to the canal front, sitting with our legs over the side. It was delicious!
Now we were both quite ready to return to Venice, and so caught the next ferry back to our accommodation. After a short rest, it was time to jump out onto the street and - find ourselves a gondola!
We had researched which area we would like - specifically we did not want to take the gondola near the main sites because while it was great to take photos of - there were just too many. For your money, you'd probably only get a short way down the canal! What we wanted was to see the little back alleys which are only accessible by gondola - the ones that had no foot path access, and to see a little slice of life.
We had read that Accademia can be a good spot for this, so we returned to where we had had our lunch the day before. 2 gondoliers pulled up here, but we were a bit unsure so kept walking. We about turned, and the gondoliers had gone. Ok...so we kept walking. We couldn't find another - it seemed like yesterday they were everywhere, but we couldn't find any today! We returned a third time to the original spot and one of the drivers was back.
It was all very simple - he helped us step into the boat, through another one, and we settled down. He immediately set off and the first thing that I noticed was how quiet it was down here. So peaceful and serene. A far cry from the rest of Venice! Dan and I took about a million photos, including of our gondolier who posed for us. At one point, we rounded into a tiny canal to hear someone practicing the violin (quite well!) and that serenaded us, and many people had different flower pots hanging out their windows.
We only passed one other boat, so we did get to experience that and at one point we even popped out on the Grand Canal! We did not expect that, and the water got quite choppy. We are going to be the subjects of a lot of people's photos - our gondolier wanted a particular canal and the main ferry was blocking the way, and so we just sat there waiting while everyone on the ferry took our photo and our video!
It was over far too soon, and we were off and paid. Before we jumped off, another gondolier took our photo - pretending to throw my phone in the water, of course! The question always is - is it worth it? It's very expensive. I really enjoyed it, it was beautiful, I do still think the price is too high and the fact it is now 30 minutes instead of 40 makes it a bit harder to justify. Still, when in Rome..I mean, when in Venice... Besides, Dan and I were able to snuggle up to each other, and giggle, and it really was beautiful.
Naturally, I was hungry by now. Venice is full of little wine bars called Osteria's that serve small bread tapas called cichetti. There was one that I had wanted to try that had a nice looking outdoorsy bit, and it wasn't too far from us. When we arrived, we realised there wasn't so much an outdoor bit as instead people could just stand on the sidewalk. The weather now was getting a bit chilly too. We went inside and looked at the wine list - prosecco was €2.50 so that was an obvious choice for me! Dan got the same, and then we each chose 3 cichetti; salmon, truffle and brie, and a seafoody salad for me. We took our food and drink outside, but it wasn't so good out there so when we spotted a table coming free inside - we nabbed it just before anyone else did.
We sat here nibbling and drinking our drink, and eavesdropping the people next to us. I couldn't help but finally butt into the conversation - apparently the elderly gentleman next to us had bought an insanely cheap bottle of liquor and he was very proud of it. What ensued was a hilarious hour chatting with Stirling from Northern Ireland (Although now living somewhere near Liverpool). He was an utter character and exceptionally good fun to chat to.
While chatting, we purchased ourselves an Aperol Spritz as that's something you have to try in Venice! The one here was also only €2.50, and it looked (and tasted) amazing. It came with an enormous olive and the salty nicely offset the sweet. We also grabbed another prosecco because at that price...
By now we had our drink on, and there was another of these Osteria that I had found - with 60c wine. Yes, in Venice. We had tried going earlier in the day but they shut just before we got there (maybe to restock?) so now was our chance to go back. We got there about 7pm and it was closing at 8pm. The place was the size of a table and absolutely overrun. There were people trying to come in both entrances, and I was so impressed by how calm the man behind the counter was. After a short wait, we managed to make our way to the front, and because the queue had been a bit long, decided to order 2 wines each and a little place of ham and cheese.
This was delivered immediately and we were able to turn around and head outside. The shop was literally only a front, so we found a corner on the stairs and hoed into our wine and the cheese, which paired beautifully. We really put these way quite quickly, so before we were finished, and the shop was still open, I ran inside and ordered us another wine each. In front of me was a tourist that made me laugh. The conversation went like this:
Tourist: Which is your best wine?
Server: It is all the best. Red or white?
Tourist: Red.
Server: Sweet or dry?
Tourist: Dry
Server: Cabernet.
The best bit? The cabernet was the 60c and what we had been drinking (heavily). I immediately ordered another two and took them back outside to Dan. We continued sipping our wine and watching the gondolas go past on the small canal. One lot of tourists were taking a lot of photos, so Dan and I posed, clinking our glasses. The shop was about to shut, so for some reason Dan ran inside and bought another...3. I should point out here that the glasses were quite small, not normal size, so it's not like we drank an entire bottle each!
This little shop shut, but we realised there was one next door! We wondered if it was run by the same people, but it's prices were (a little bit) more expensive, but they had a small amount of indoor seating and - most importantly - a toilet. We bought a prosecco here for €1 while I got the chance to wine escape....
We were pretty tiddly by now, and it was time to make our way back to the accommodation. When we arrived, I realised we hadn't eaten any proper dinner, so Dan kindly went back out into the world and brought back a pizza which we scoffed from the comfort of our room.
Til next time,
xx
I had read to expect to be hassled the moment you jumped off the ferry, but this wasn't the case for us. I think it was because everyone on the island was so distracted by the GAS conference - the shops already had willing participants! We jumped off and just followed the crowd. This island is no where near as beautiful as the others, although it is filled with canals. The buildings are more plain brick or factories.
As we walked down the main street, we stopped to watch a man in an open door creating a glass product, however this was all the glass blowing/making that we saw this day. Continuing on, we found the main stretch, and just walked along, peeking in some shop windows, occasionally going inside. There were some massive sculptures that were quite impressive, but most of it was the same store to store. Some stores were obviously hand made by the artist inside, which was quite lovely.
We found a shop that also had an attached gallery, so we spent some time wandering through this. The store itself seemed a bit nicer than the others, and we ended up buying a few little glass trinkets. We were both getting pretty weary of looking in shop windows, and we didn't want to buy anything else. I spotted an icecream store down a side street which sold homemade gelato - we got a couple of scoops each and returned to the canal front, sitting with our legs over the side. It was delicious!
Now we were both quite ready to return to Venice, and so caught the next ferry back to our accommodation. After a short rest, it was time to jump out onto the street and - find ourselves a gondola!
We had researched which area we would like - specifically we did not want to take the gondola near the main sites because while it was great to take photos of - there were just too many. For your money, you'd probably only get a short way down the canal! What we wanted was to see the little back alleys which are only accessible by gondola - the ones that had no foot path access, and to see a little slice of life.
We had read that Accademia can be a good spot for this, so we returned to where we had had our lunch the day before. 2 gondoliers pulled up here, but we were a bit unsure so kept walking. We about turned, and the gondoliers had gone. Ok...so we kept walking. We couldn't find another - it seemed like yesterday they were everywhere, but we couldn't find any today! We returned a third time to the original spot and one of the drivers was back.
It was all very simple - he helped us step into the boat, through another one, and we settled down. He immediately set off and the first thing that I noticed was how quiet it was down here. So peaceful and serene. A far cry from the rest of Venice! Dan and I took about a million photos, including of our gondolier who posed for us. At one point, we rounded into a tiny canal to hear someone practicing the violin (quite well!) and that serenaded us, and many people had different flower pots hanging out their windows.
We only passed one other boat, so we did get to experience that and at one point we even popped out on the Grand Canal! We did not expect that, and the water got quite choppy. We are going to be the subjects of a lot of people's photos - our gondolier wanted a particular canal and the main ferry was blocking the way, and so we just sat there waiting while everyone on the ferry took our photo and our video!
It was over far too soon, and we were off and paid. Before we jumped off, another gondolier took our photo - pretending to throw my phone in the water, of course! The question always is - is it worth it? It's very expensive. I really enjoyed it, it was beautiful, I do still think the price is too high and the fact it is now 30 minutes instead of 40 makes it a bit harder to justify. Still, when in Rome..I mean, when in Venice... Besides, Dan and I were able to snuggle up to each other, and giggle, and it really was beautiful.
Naturally, I was hungry by now. Venice is full of little wine bars called Osteria's that serve small bread tapas called cichetti. There was one that I had wanted to try that had a nice looking outdoorsy bit, and it wasn't too far from us. When we arrived, we realised there wasn't so much an outdoor bit as instead people could just stand on the sidewalk. The weather now was getting a bit chilly too. We went inside and looked at the wine list - prosecco was €2.50 so that was an obvious choice for me! Dan got the same, and then we each chose 3 cichetti; salmon, truffle and brie, and a seafoody salad for me. We took our food and drink outside, but it wasn't so good out there so when we spotted a table coming free inside - we nabbed it just before anyone else did.
We sat here nibbling and drinking our drink, and eavesdropping the people next to us. I couldn't help but finally butt into the conversation - apparently the elderly gentleman next to us had bought an insanely cheap bottle of liquor and he was very proud of it. What ensued was a hilarious hour chatting with Stirling from Northern Ireland (Although now living somewhere near Liverpool). He was an utter character and exceptionally good fun to chat to.
While chatting, we purchased ourselves an Aperol Spritz as that's something you have to try in Venice! The one here was also only €2.50, and it looked (and tasted) amazing. It came with an enormous olive and the salty nicely offset the sweet. We also grabbed another prosecco because at that price...
By now we had our drink on, and there was another of these Osteria that I had found - with 60c wine. Yes, in Venice. We had tried going earlier in the day but they shut just before we got there (maybe to restock?) so now was our chance to go back. We got there about 7pm and it was closing at 8pm. The place was the size of a table and absolutely overrun. There were people trying to come in both entrances, and I was so impressed by how calm the man behind the counter was. After a short wait, we managed to make our way to the front, and because the queue had been a bit long, decided to order 2 wines each and a little place of ham and cheese.
This was delivered immediately and we were able to turn around and head outside. The shop was literally only a front, so we found a corner on the stairs and hoed into our wine and the cheese, which paired beautifully. We really put these way quite quickly, so before we were finished, and the shop was still open, I ran inside and ordered us another wine each. In front of me was a tourist that made me laugh. The conversation went like this:
Tourist: Which is your best wine?
Server: It is all the best. Red or white?
Tourist: Red.
Server: Sweet or dry?
Tourist: Dry
Server: Cabernet.
The best bit? The cabernet was the 60c and what we had been drinking (heavily). I immediately ordered another two and took them back outside to Dan. We continued sipping our wine and watching the gondolas go past on the small canal. One lot of tourists were taking a lot of photos, so Dan and I posed, clinking our glasses. The shop was about to shut, so for some reason Dan ran inside and bought another...3. I should point out here that the glasses were quite small, not normal size, so it's not like we drank an entire bottle each!
This little shop shut, but we realised there was one next door! We wondered if it was run by the same people, but it's prices were (a little bit) more expensive, but they had a small amount of indoor seating and - most importantly - a toilet. We bought a prosecco here for €1 while I got the chance to wine escape....
We were pretty tiddly by now, and it was time to make our way back to the accommodation. When we arrived, I realised we hadn't eaten any proper dinner, so Dan kindly went back out into the world and brought back a pizza which we scoffed from the comfort of our room.
Til next time,
xx
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