Burano, Italy

On our recent trip to Venice we made a trip to Burano, one of the Venice islands and definitely in my opinion the prettiest. When planning our trip to Venice I had come across pictures of Burano and I had to make sure we visited on our break. All the buildings are painted in bright colours and on a sunny day which it was when we visited it just absolutely shone in the sunshine, with the green water of the canals glistening. If you love your Instagram it is the perfect place to get the best Instagram pictures, a colourful paradise if you will.

We visited on a Friday early afternoon in May and it was pretty quiet, not too busy and a great way to spend the day. It’s a super relaxing island and a joy to see.

How To Get To Burano From Venice

We took the water bus vaporetto (Line 12 ) from Fondamente Nove to Burano. It takes about 45 mins and you can buy a ticket at the ticket stand before you board. If you want to visit Murano island also, then it is a couple of stops before Burano. I’d advise picking up a daily travel card and you can pop on the water bus throughout the day as you please and visit the islands. These were 20 Euro per person, otherwise you can buy single tickets for the water bus. Check out the water bus timetable here.

Places To See In Burano

Burano’s colourful houses are the main attractions and if you love taking photographs, you will be in your element. Burano is well known for it’s hand-crafted lace, as you will see from all the shops selling lace. There is also a lace museum you can visit, which tells the history of lace making in Burano, a craft kept alive by centuries by the wives of the fishermen waiting for their husbands to return from sea.

Each woman specialises in a single stitch, since there are seven stitches each piece is passed from woman to woman to finish. Groups of women work for days to produce items such as trims fror dresses, accessories and tablecloths. It’s the attention to detail that has lasted for centuries. There are plenty shops selling all sorts of things from masquerade masks to cute colourful Burano magnets and clothes.

Try The Bussolà Buranello Cookies

There are numerous bakeries on the island selling the Bussolà Buranello Cookies, which are made in Burano. In Venice you may see packs of these but in Burano if they aren’t packaged then you known they’ve made them fresh in the bakery. The cookies are easy to spot as they come in an ‘S’ shape. ‘Bussolà Buranello’ translates to ‘compass of Burano’ and goes back to when the women of the village would make these cookies for their husbands who would be out fishing at sea.

Burano is a fishing village and old tale suggests that’s why the houses were painted bright colours, so due to the fog they could see them from a long distance when they went out fishing. Each colour corresponded to a family, to their house and to their address. I tried one with chocolate chip, it has a thick butter like texture but is sweet too. Definitely worth a try.

Lunch At The Black Cat

There are plenty restaurants on Burano but one of the most famous is Trattoria Al Gatto Nero which serves up the best seafood on the island. We reserved a table for lunch and I am so glad we did as it was fully booked for the day. They had saved us a table outside and inside in case it was a nice day or we didn’t want to sit outside, which I thought was so lovely of them. The restaurant was very busy, but the food was worth the wait.

I ordered the sea bass which is one of the best I’d tasted and Danny (who is allergic to seafood) had the Spaghetti Bolognese which is the only none fish dish on the menu. I’d definitely recommend reserving a table here for lunch in Burano.

Would you like to visit Burano?