Murano, Burano, and the Venetian Lagoon

A highlight of our time in Venice was exploring the Venetian lagoon by boat – a glossy vintage wooden Riva speedboat, no less!

We booked through ShoMe Venice, which is run by Luca and his fellow guides who are all Venetian natives. (I’d actually first met him when he conducted a live virtual tour of Venice for my team at work during Covid!) Luca met us at our hotel and we walked the short distance to St Mark’s Square, where the boat was waiting. In a city where boats are everything, ours turned heads and even had some passersby inquiring if they could hire it.

Once situated on board, we headed past some of the nearer islands, like Guidecca with its quieter luxury hotels, and then sped over to Murano, better known as the glassmaking island since the 13th century. At that time, the Venetian government mandated that all glassmakers move to the island to isolate the risk of fires – but more importantly, to keep the specialized knowledge in one place, under control, as the glassmakers were forbidden from leaving the island.

Even today it’s rare for glassmakers to leave, because the ovens stay on 24/7. Apparently they all take 2 weeks off in January, their one annual vacation, to ski in the Dolomites, the only time the ovens go out, as it takes another week to restart them and return them to temperature.

On Murano, each master is specialized – some make only chandeliers, others make art pieces.  We toured an incredible series of rooms filled with every kind and style of Murano glass you could imagine, from ornately gold and painted pieces whose makers died long ago, to striking modern pieces (all for sale, of course!).  Glass pieces of this quality can appreciate quite a bit, especially since each year the number of artisans shrinks. It’s not easy to convince the children of the current masters to sign up for a job that requires 50 weeks a year in front of a boiling hot oven.

We watched a demonstration by one of the masters who created a glass horse in just moments!

Next we cruised over to Burano. It was originally a fishermen’s island, but the women started making lace (similar to making/repairing nets) while the men were out working and now it is more famous as the lace makers’ island.  Each house is painted a different bright color so the fishermen could find their way home in the fog or the dark. 

We visited La Perla, a shop selling handmade lace (not the same as the more commercial La Perla).  The youngest lace maker on Burano is a sprightly 79 years old!  Again, this is not a popular career choice for the young – each lace maker specializes in a different stitch and pieces can take weeks or months to make, then the profit is split across the group so it is not a very lucrative career.  Both Murano and Burano remind me of the situation with traditional crafts in Japan, which has the same history of specialization among artisans as well as the challenges finding successors.

We had lunch on Burano at a fabulous restaurant, Al Gatto Nero.  As Luca said, it’s “grandma cooking” with time-consuming traditional dishes like risotto alla Buranella, which requires at least six hours to simmer tiny fish in a broth that is then strained and used to cook the rice.  Intense essence of the sea but without any fish at all in the final dish!  The restaurant was completely packed and is one of the favorites of Venetian families (our other guide told us the same). 

We invited Luca to join us so we made a party of three at a table next to the canal, enjoying a starter of antipasto (about 10 different small selections of mantis shrimp, baccala, scallop, etc).  We split their famous risotto as well as papardelle with scampi (langoustine), tomato, shavings of smoked ricotta, and fresh zucchini flowers.  This was my favorite!  Then we shared branzino ‘All’Acqua Pazza’, which was soft and delicious, cooked with potato, tomato, zucchini, and olives.  We were too full for dessert so set off to explore the island, stopping at a little linen shop to buy a dress for me and some new shirts for Dan.

We returned to our boat and toured around a few of the other islands – the vineyard island, farm island (where all the fresh produce is grown for Venice), the cemetery island, and the beach island (Lido).  In all there are 118 islands in the lagoon.

We stretched out on the sunbed to relax and enjoy the waves during the 45 minute trip back to Venice proper.  By the time we returned to the hotel it was nearly 7pm, a full day of exploration and memories!