20 Photos from Burano, Italy’s Most Colorful Town

If you find yourself in Venice, don’t miss spending at least one day in Burano Italy’s most colorful Town!

Burano Italy’s most colorful town is about 45 minutes by boat from Venice. We missed out on visiting this colorful fishing town the last time we were in Venice and wanted to make sure we visited it this time around. Burano is a little more quiet, quaint compared to Venice and so very colorful. It is believed that the local fishermen painted their houses to distinguish them from a distance when returning home in the dark hours especially when it is foggy.

20 Photos from Burano, Italy’s Most Colorful Town

How to get to Burano from Venice

We took a motorboat also known as Vaporetto from Venice’s Fondamenta Nuove port. The boat stopped first at Murano on the way but we chose to skip it since we have been to the glass factory there on a previous trip. As we neared the port of Burano, it was hard not to miss the leaning bell tower – the Campanile for the Church of San Martino. This tower has been leaning due to the soft ground it stands on. The air was crisp as we disembarked with other camera toting tourists and made our way past the little colorful café as we entered the town.

One day in Burano

A day trip from Venice to Burano is easy to do. You can catch the number 12 Vaporetta from Fondamenta Nove. It costs under €10 for a one-way ticket and takes around 45 minutes. You can spend a day in Burano and take the Vaporetta back to Venice after sunset.

Another option is to take the number 12 to Murano, go on a glass factory tour, then board the number 12 Vaporetto to Burano. Or you can go on an organized tour that also takes you to the islands of Murano and Torcello in addition to Burano. This is one of Venice’s best day trips, add it to your itinerary!

Burano is made up of four islands, separated by narrow canals and connected by small bridges. The colorful houses of Burano Italy’s most colorful town are all nicely lined up in narrow streets alongside the canals where the water seemed to be almost still making for some perfect reflections.

Burano’s houses were originally painted in bright colors so that families could distinguish where their homes from their neighbors.  It is now against the law for adjacent houses to have the same colors, so as to ensure there is a variety of colors throughout the islands’ different areas.

With our cameras and phones, we clicked away hundreds of photos of the brightly colored windows, doors, buildings and houses that make this island so unique. It almost looked like it belonged in a coloring book.

It is best to lose the crowds, and wander into the narrow streets to discover a quieter side of this charming and colorful town!

I wonder if people living here get annoyed with travelers taking pictures of their laundry and windows, but no one seemed to mind 🙂

What to eat in Burano

On the main street of Calle Galuppi, which was filled with lace shops, souvenir stores and bakeries, we stopped to pick up some treats unique to Burano – Bussolà of Burano.  Bussolà is a typical donut-shaped cake of the island, also known by the name of buranelli. There is also a variation of these cookies having an “S” shape, because of its form they are called Burano’s essi (plural) or Burano’s esse (singular). The sweet has a composition rich in nutrients, such as eggs, flour, sugar and butter which, after having been cooked, have long durability.

Burano’s cookies were prepared by the wives of the fishermen, when they were moving away from home to go fishing, for long periods of time. In the event that the sailors couldn’t have good nutrition, the bussolà arranged to give them all the energies sufficient to deal with the sea life. It is also said that the bussolà buranello, flavored with vanilla, rum or lemon, was used to scent the linen into the drawers.

Lace making in Burano

Burano is also widely known for its lace-making traditions. We stopped at La Perla, a boutique store run by the Bon family that was recommended by our hotel. We were welcomed with warm smiles and friendly chatter. There was an impressive display of original lace, some of which took about 5 years for different lace-makers to complete. 

We also got a chance to see how these laces are made, following the ancient practices.  Each lacemaker would specialize in one stitch and the lace would pass from woman to woman until it was completed.

They were 2 floors full of intricate lace products – doilies, table linens, dresses, handkerchiefs and pictures on the walls that were made by lace.

The art of lace making is dying and most of the items sold around the island are machine-made or imported. The handmade ones are still available but with a steep price tag but there was no pressure to buy.  You can also visit the Lace Museum in Burano if time permits. We came home with some small lace doilies and of course a bag of Bussolà.

We had planned to spend an hour but ended up spending close to 5 hours and also stayed to watch the sunset from the tiny island. As the sun made it way down, it cast a bright glow to the houses making them even more vibrant.

I hope you enjoyed these photos from Burano, Italy’s most colorful town!

You might also like:
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A photo diary of Beautiful Bergamo
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Other posts from Italy

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