Burano is a small fishing island in the Venetian Lagoon, known for its brightly painted houses and canals.
When we visited Venice for the second time, I really wanted to go to Burano. My wife loves colors, so as you can imagine, I really wanted to take her to Burano and explore the island with her.
So we made sure to take a ferry and stay there all day until sunset, and then take a late ferry back to Venice. Surprisingly, many one-day tourists left before us, so we managed to get some photos without people in the frame and walk around by ourselves.
What Burano offers that Venice can’t
Venice’s beauty is almost impossible to overstate, and I’m not trying to say otherwise. But while Venice overwhelms with scale and grandeur, Burano offers intimacy and color. You can walk the entire island in under an hour, and instead of crowded piazzas, you get narrow canals, footbridges, and laundry lines strung between windows.
The real draw is simply walking the quieter side streets, turning a corner and finding a canal lined in orange, then another in blue, then one in acid green. I wrote more about the theories surrounding the colors of Burano in this other post.
Burano is a regular stop for day-trip tours from Venice, but because the island is so small, traffic concentrates in a few spots rather than spreading everywhere the way it does in Venice. For visitors who find Venice beautiful but exhausting, Burano is the closer, calmer alternative. The same Venetian lagoon magic, on a scale that’s easier to take in.
A photographer’s advice to Burano
Burano’s most photogenic feature is the color and the contrast (which by the way reminded me of the colorful architecture in Symi, Greece). You could walk away from the main tourist path near Piazza Galuppi and toward the quieter canals, where reflections in the water double every color and give an interesting effect.
Sunset adds an extra layer too, as the light rakes across the facades at an angle, deepening every hue and casting long shadows down the narrow calli, as in this photo.
The “Tre Ponti” or Three Bridges is the most popular spot for photography, which means it’s usually crowded during the day. But if you manage to be there before or after the streets fill with the day-trip crowds, you can get a memorable shot.
Finally, don’t forget to put down the camera and enjoy yourself. Explore the centuries-old lace-making tradition at the Museum of Lace, have a long seafood lunch by the water, and marvel at the small blessings of the Venetian lagoon lifestyle.
If you ever go to Venice, I highly recommend a visit to Burano. Thank me later!
