Burano Colour Loving

Burano, what a DREAM you are! An insta lover's dream. A colour lover's dream. A rainbow lover's dream. A photographer's dream. A paradise hunter's dream. A truly magical island decked out in all the colours of the rainbow. If you don't already know it, it's an incredibly peaceful, sleepy, tiny island (apart from the tourist influx on the ferry each day!) set out in the bay of Venice a little further beyond Murano.

We too a ferry from Venice over to the Island for the day, to wander, explore, photograph and have fun!

Our favourite parts of the island were those where we stayed away from the touristy main street and ducked into narrow, empty back streets, quiet green squares and the waterfront all the way round the island. Streets with little more than the washing hanging out or the locals going about their simple daily business of watering the plants, posting a letter or catching up with the neighbours.

As an aside, how much would you love to have a doorbell with you name on it like the one above?! Adorable!

It's crazy to think of this as a permanent home for the island's small population. Seeing evidence of 'normal' life in a place like this really gets you thinking. Washing hanging on the line, delivery trolleys, Mac packaging! All a little incongruous in such a quaint chocolate box village!! What, this isn't just a movie set?!? REAL people live here and go about their lives each day?!? That's just so wonderful. 

The whole of Venice was a Mecca for selfie sticks and Burano was no exception! In fact, the prevalence was so high I'm surprised there aren't more accidents on the island - folks shuffling backwards in search of that perfect angle while staring longingly into the reflections of their own faces....until they end up plummeting backwards into a canal!! :p Now THAT'd something worth catching a selfie of! ;)

But on a few of the liveliest backdrops we couldn't help snap a shot or two of us both, in the old fashioned way!!

As I took this picture, the home owner suddenly popped out from behind her gorgeous striped curtain to throw a bowl full of breadcrumbs to the pigeons. She didn't seem to mind the fact that I had just been snapping away at her front door! But guess it comes with the territory of having such a cute front entrance! :) 

Needless to say, I snapped away along with the best of them. So here are a few of my favourite shots for your perusal.

THE most amazing platter of fritto misto ever for our lunch stop. Plus a bowl of delicious fresh tiny artichokes that were super tender and full of flavour. Mmmmm....

If you love colour and have not yet visited Burano. GET YOURSELVES A PLANE TICKET!! It's a sweet ferry hop from Venice over to the island. It's more famous big sister Murano is a popular stopping point too, but trust me, you won't be disappointed if you stay on the vaporetto for the extra hop out to the cuter, smaller sister island! Why are baby sisters always infuriating cuter and sweeter eh?! (Yes, I mean you Izzy!!!) ;)

So after such a thoroughly fun day out on Burano, I'm now on a hunt for other magical places to visit that are filled with colour, if you have any brainwaves I'd love to know!  

A Venetian Dream

Venice was A-MAZing!! We had an absolutely dreamy few days wandering the streets, and wandering and wandering... In fact, we racked up almost 20 thousand steps each and every day, phew! That's a serious work out for the pins right there. But all the better for guilt free gelati consumption afterwards! ;)

I have to confess - we didn't do MUCH culture. We popped our heads into a couple of churches and the ospidale, but rather than trawl around museums for hours we simply soaked up the atmosphere in the streets and canals - they felt steeped in history like he museums pretty much anyway! We sauntered from bacaro to bacaro, nibbling on cichetti, aperol spritz, snapping away, posing on bridges....all the usual! ;)

One cultural thing we DID do was visit the Peggy Guggenheim museum, which was fascinating! Her collection of art is incredible, really varied and fantastic. We had a few favourites each, but what I almost loved more than the artwork itself was the photos of her living amongst them. She had art all over her house, it was just how she lived, which I found incredible. She even had one of the pieces now in the gallery as her headboard above her bed!

We didn't even take a ride in a gondola :o I KNOW!! what sort of tourists do we call ourselves?! But I wasn't really up for that sort of cringeworthy ride at an extortionate price. I'd rather save those pennies for more pizza and gelati! (Anyone else noticing a theme here..?!) 

However we did get ourselves a day pass for the vaporetti on our last day and spent a lush afternoon zipping up and down the Grande Canale. And yes, we may have gone up and down it at least a few times!

On the last run (and when Mr Fantastic thought we were all done) a sudden crack appeared in the clouds and the sun streamed through creating the most gorgeous evening 'magic hour' light. So I promptly dragged him back on the next water bus and started snapping away like mad! The glorious light only lasted a mere 10mins or so, but I swear I nearly filled up our memory card in that time! ;) 

Other than this flurry of excitement we mostly wandered and explored in a bit of a dreamy haze. The almost constant drizzle (I thought only good old Blighty did drizzle so well!) couldn't dampen our spirits and each day we armed ourselves with boots and brollies and braved whatever the Agean sea's weather system threw at us! 

The warm muted colours of Italy are my absolute favourite and went so beautifully with the turquoise of the canals. It's almost like someone planned it! It was magical to discover yet another beautiful vignette around each corner, even though we did find ourselves as a fair few (incredibly quaint) dead ends!!

Last but not least...

Yes, the gelati!! *swoon* It was all absolutely delicious! I think I pretty much had one a day and if it was getting close to the end of the day and I still hadn't got my daily fix, I'd start to get nervous!! That's normal right?! ;) 

A few more final shots of the sunshine on the canals, but I'll leave it there for now, this post is already getting sooo long!! Suffice to say, I fell in love with Venice all over again on this trip and I can't wait to go back again already!!!