Day 5: Sunday, January 19

A Day Trip to Burano

Our group met at 7:30 this morning in the hotel’s Breakfast Room. There was no dawn shoot today as we needed to dedicate our early start to travelling to the island of Burano.

After breakfast we gathered our gear and regrouped at 8:15 to commence our day trip to Burano. It took several Vaporetto line changes and an hour and a half journey, but we finally reached Burano at about 11:30.

A Bit About Burano…

Situated at the northern end of the lagoon is the magical island of Burano. Famous for its lace-making and brightly painted houses, this tiny island is unique. The island was probably first populated in the 6th century when the people of Altino in Abruzzo fled there to escape a barbarian invasion. It is believed that the practice of painting the houses bright colours served two main purposes. Firstly, simple individuality, to distinguish one property from another and secondly so that the owners, who were mainly fishermen, could see their homes from offshore.*

The population of the island is just over two thousand seven hundred and every square inch of available space is taken up by mostly residential property. [*Text courtesy of Light & Land]

Exploring Burano

Upon disembarking the Vaporetto, our group broke apart, each heading off separately to shoot this quirky, beautiful little island. We agreed to meet back at the Vaporetto stop at 2:15.

It was a fun few hours as I wandered the island of Burano, shooting the colourful little houses there. The island was a photographer’s dream. The weather was almost non-stop rain or drizzle, which in some ways was good as it made the colour on the houses really pop due to the diffused light:

Lunch in Burano + A Puzzling Thing

I stopped for lunch at a nice café in Burano named Bar Caffe Palmisano, accidentally joining others from the group who had had the same idea. While there, I had to eventually make the inevitable visit to their facilities. Doing so, I encountered yet another Italian toilet with no seat. I’m puzzled by this – it must be an Italian thing as I ran into the same thing a couple of years ago when touring around Tuscany. It’s not that the seat is broken off the toilet; it’s just not designed with a seat!:

After lunch I went out shooting on my own again but kept an eye on the time knowing we had to meet back at the docks later.

We all met back at the Vaporetto stop at 2:15, getting on board shortly after that. On the way back, Jennifer and Daphne returned to the hotel early, as Phil had planned to take us on another extended photowalk, and the women said they just weren’t up for it.

Campo San Francesco

The rest of our group got off the Vaporetto at the hospital stop. From there Phil took us to two more great shooting locations. First up was Campo San Francesco:

Within Campo San Francesco was the Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna church:

Italians are adamant regarding showing respect in public places, especially in churches. Witness this sign posted outside the Chiesa di San Francesco della Vigna church in Campo San Francesco:

Ponte Dei Conzalfelzi (Two Canals)

Then, on to the Ponte Dei Conzalfelzi, which also goes by the apt English name Two Canals. As you can see, there is a canal on either side of the building:

From there we walked back to the hotel in the steady drizzle which had dogged our steps all day. Arriving at the hotel at 5:00, we had a couple of hours free time.

Evening Meal

At 7:15 we met in the hotel’s Reception area and proceeded to a restaurant called Tavernetta San Maurizio for our evening meal.

We got settled and placed our food orders. I had an Insalata Mista, Lasagna Bolognese, a litre of Still water (which I shared with James), and a Coke Zero. Unfortunately, the food here was not great; it was the only place so far in the trip where the food was less than ideal. Everyone went very quiet after the main course (brought on by disappointment most likely). No desserts or coffees were ordered. We paid the bill and left, returning to the hotel at about 9:00PM.

I rested and read for the remainder of the evening, then off to bed.