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On an overcast October day, I took a series of boats out to Burano, a small island in the North Lagoon. Historically, Burano was an island known for its lace making and fishermen. While there are fewer lace makers on Burano today, it's still home to fishermen and artists who live in brightly colored houses.
On the way out to Burano, you pass a series of ruins on tiny islands in the lagoon:
and this tower:
There's a pretty little park where the boat docks, with this statue as its focal point:
After passing through the park, you begin to wander along the small canals and through the side streets and alleys. My trip out to Burano was mid-week and few people (locals or tourists) were there. The islanders were likely at work or in school while the coming storms and rain scared off many of the tourists who normally flock to the tiny islands. It many ways it was a great day to visit. It was a quiet oasis compared to the hubub of crowded Venice and the brightly colored buildings popped against the gray skies.
There were also a couple of fishermen sitting along side one of the main canals fixing their fishing nets.
After wandering for a bit, I decided to have lunch at a little seafood restaurant called Al Gatto Nero.
I ordered an antipasto appetizer which ended up being a seafood platter with scallops, prawns, baby squid, crab dip and an unidentified lagoon crustacean. The baby squid were just too tentaclely too eat. I did try the unidentified lagoon crustacean (the light pink thing on the left hand side of the plate). It wasn't bad. It also came with a bowl of steamed clams and a glass of procesco (a sparkling wine native to the Veneto region). The plates the food was served on were really pretty--a ring of Burano houses circled the edge of the plate and had a black cat on one edge).
After lunch I went back to wandering and did a little shopping.
As the day drew to a close, I wandered back to the water boat dock. The park was filled with folks waiting for the boat on benches or wandering around eating gelato.
I got back to Venice just as the first rain drops started to fall, after a short detour at Murano where I picked up the boat to Venice. It rained all that night and into the next day. While it made for great sleeping weather, the next day would see me slogging through flooded streets and into glass blowing shops. But, that is a tale for another time.
In addition to darkened skies, a new moon (and a full moon) brings Acqua Alta, or to non-Venetians, high tidal waters that under the right conditions can put a large chunk of Venice under water. Fortunately, the flooding today was minor by Acqua Alta standards, with tides topping out around 1.03 meters. Now, this doesn't mean that there was 1.03 meters of water in St. Mark's Square (one of the lowest places in Venice). Only about 3 to 4 inches bubbled up through the drains at its peak. But, it was enough to get the footbridges out so the tourists could still get into St. Mark's Basilica and keep their feet mostly dry as they wandered through the square in front. In other higher places in Venice, the water merely lapped at the top of the canal banks and made it hard to pass under some bridges.
The first picture below shows what St. Mark's Square looks like at low tide, packed full of people.
The next picture below shows what the Square looks like as the tide is starting to come in around 9 am.
The final picture shows the square at the peak of high tide (incidently one of the few times during the day when you can get a clear shot the length of the square). The seagulls were out swimming on the square in places.
Lest you think Aqua Alta is much about nothing, let me point you to a link showing the worst flooding in 22 years on December 1, 2008: Bad Acqua Alta Flooding
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