Around Venice Lagoon, Venice, Italy

Every guidebook to Venice out there mentions three lagoon islands – usually sequenced as Murano, then Burano, then Torcello – as fairly unmissable targets on a Venetian itinerary. I hold a potentially unpopular opinion that only Burano rises to a must, while the other two are more of a special-interest kind. Nonetheless, on each of my visits to Venice, I have set aside a day to stop by all three. This time was no exception.

I did start with Burano, which is nothing short of a feast for the eyes. Everywhere you look, you see a burst of colors like in these perspectives. Captions are hardly necessary.

The bright palette originated in necessity. Distinct colors helped fishermen locate their houses in foggy conditions. I have always wondered why Burano is seemingly the only fishing village where such conditions had brought about such solution, but that certainly made the island unique.

There are also a couple of houses that stand alone in their decorative aspect, such as Casa di Gianfranco Rosso, also known as a “high-tide house” on account of marking the tide lines for recent floods… ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).