Ah ! Burano

Napoleon called it “The Best Drawing Room in Europe”. Little doubt does it leave why Venice attracts hordes of holiday makers at any time of the year. In fact, Venetians like to walk the streets and squares in the evenings just to watch the tourists. While for a tourist, Venice is all about Gondolas, sunsets, changing lights, Harry’s bar, maze of canals, small bridges, blow glass of Murano, glass beads, the Venetian masks, the vaporetto and the pigeons…Truly a folding picture postcard of itself. It’s all for the eyes. Built on water, it is an endless succession of reflections and echoes, a mirror image. For an Art connoisseur the same Venice is about Titian, Tentoretto, Canaletto, Guardi, Jacopo Bellini and even the invention of easel painting.

Tucked away, however, from Venice is a cheerful, bright, small island called Burano. A ferry ride from Fondamento Nuove takes you to this colorful pretty characteristic fishing village. It is truly an artist’s paradise. It is a revelation, a muse...The first glimpse at the streets lined with brightly painted houses is like an explosion in a paint’s factory!! Unlike the grim Art history of Venice, Burano is just a fishing village. Where as Venice is an eternal present, Burano is a nineteenth century setting. You step off the vaporetto into an old fashioned opera of colors.

Each home in the street is painted a different color from pastels to bright so the fishermen can spot their house from far away in the sea.

As you walk along the streets on Burano, you can see black shawled old women sitting in the sun, making lace. Bead stringing is another specialty and a pass time with Old Burano wives, and one can catch a glimpse of women stringing beads in their open kitchens.

The first sight that meets is the whole town’s laundry blowing in the breeze – a Welcome Banner!!! Burano is cheerful because so much happens outdoors here, in the sunlight. There seem to be no secrets!!