A day trip to Burano

Yesterday was a lovely day in Venice.  We knew rain was forecast for this week but that Sunday should have been fine.  And it was.  So we headed off to Burano.  It was somewhere we had never been to (ok I lie, on our last trip in 2008 we got off at the Burano ferry stop and caught another ferry to Torcello, which was absolutely amazing, so technically we have been there)  Anyway, we made up for it yesterday.

We had a longer than expected ride from Riva de Biasio (our vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal) as the vaporetto we could take to Fondamenta Nuove wasn't in service.  So we hopped on the number 1 vaporetto, packed with tourists, and squeezed in for a few stops, getting off at Ca'D'oro and weaving through the back streets and campos of Cannaregio to FN.  We then got on the LN ferry that stops at Murano first and then heads to Burano.  It's about a 40 minute trip, slow (20kms an hour the maximum speed).  I love going past San Michele - the cemetery island - particularly when it's misty.

We arrived at Burano close to lunch and had already been tipped off to TRATTORIA AL GATTO NERO on one of the canals.

It was a bit cool so we decided to try our luck at a table inside.  Did we have a reservation?  No, but they cleared a table for us and we knew we got lucky!  We decided to splurge.  For antipasti we chose the degustazione option and three plates of seafood came out, some cooked, some not.  There were prawns, mussels, vongole, a scallop (with tomato and olive oil on top -- delicious!), smoked salmon, baby octopus, razor clams and langoustine.  Plenty to share for E26.00.   We then shared the homemade taglioni with spider crab.  Add on wine (the house wine was superb), a bottle of san pellegrino, and an espresso, well let's just say it was a bit of a splurge!  But worth every second of it.

We then strolled around and of course I took dozens and dozens of photos.  Burano is a photographer's heaven.  So much colour and light.  And you look for the light in the water.  You wait for the reflections.  And they are beautiful.  I would love to see it on a really sunny blue sky day.  That must make the place sparkle!

We shopped - and yes I bought a scarf (yes surprise surprise however bit disturbing in that it was my second shiny shiny glitzy one this trip, but it was lovely - and colourful!).  I also bought a print from the local artist.  Just a cheap momento of the place.  A handful of postcards later and another walk around the square and a few of the canals, and we were back on the ferry for the long but relaxing trip back to Venice.

On the way back the sun shone directly on my face - and it was beautiful.