murano & burano

Wednesday morning, I decided to go to Murano and Burano (2 little islands that you can reach by vaporetto from Venice). Murano is famous for glass. Burano is famous for lace and the wonderful colored houses.

I took a vaporetto to the ferrovia stop, walked to the Canneregio Canal which was not that far, stopped for an espresso, and then took another vaporetto to the Fondamente Nove area where I waited for yet another vaporetto to go to Murano. Even though I had been to Murano back in 1999, I thought for some reason that the boat ride was much longer than it actually was. Luckily the Murano stop was announced or I might have stayed on the boat and missed the stop. The weather was hot and muggy and the skies were overcast. I was hoping for a clear sunny day for better pictures but this was the day I had. After taking a few pictures on Murano, I headed on to the area where the boats go from Murano to Burano.

(Murano)

The ride from Murano to Burano was much longer. Burano is an amazing place. The houses are all painted various bright colors. This island seems to be filled mostly with tourists during the daytime. I imagine that it is quite a different place at night when everyone goes back to Venice. I stopped in a few lace shops and finally decided on one small piece of lace.

(Burano)

For lunch, I wandered off the main street to Al Gatto Nero. Most of the places in Burano were very touristy and I remembered reading about this restaurant. The restaurant was filled with tourists seated outside and locals seated inside. There was also one long table outside that was reserved and later was filled with a group of locals. It appeared to me that the tourists were given much different service and perhaps the menus/prices may have even been different as the prices were quite high and many of the locals looked like they were regulars who were on their lunch break. This of course is just a guess. The service was not very good and the food was just ok (although very pretty for a picture).

(my lunch)

After walking all over Burano, I returned to the vaporetto area and took the next boat back to Murno. I spent another hour looking in many of the glass shops there. Both were great places to wander and shop.

(Isola di San Michele - located between Murano & Venice)

I decided to walk from the Fondamente Nove stop instead of transferring to a second vaporetto. This is where I ended up getting really lost on my first visit to Venice. I got lost again but was able to find may way back after a few wrong turns. I was pretty tired from a long day.

Wednesday evening, it took a little while to find a good place to eat since I did not make a reservation earlier in the day. Many of the touristy places have lots of available tables, but the restaurants which are visited more by local people and the restaurants which I had written down as recommendations were often crowded and more difficult to find an open table.

On my 3rd try, I was successful at getting a table at Circolo La Buona Forchetta, a tiny little restaurant that was recommended on slow travel. I was treated very kindly at this restaurant and had a wonderful meal! The man taking my order suggested a dish for me to have before I even looked at the menu on the wall (a seafood pasta dish). The little kitchen where the woman cooked the food was right in the front of the restaurant. The only bad thing was that this made the room quite hot. After a short while, 4 people from France came in and sat at the table next to me. We had a conversation about politics and then my meal arrived. Lobster, crab, and mussels with spaghetti...very very delicious! Much better than my seafood pasta that I had for lunch. Although I was full after eating this dish and a small salad with a superb balsamica and oil dressing, they insisted on bringing me some biscotti made in the restaurant with some vin santo wine for dessert.

Another wonderful day in Venice!