Italy Blog #20: Venice: Burano Island of Lace, Bright Houses, Cookies

Burano painted houses

In this blog of the islands of Venice we take you to Burano, which is famous for lace-making and brightly colored houses and Buranelli cookies. It's 4 miles or 7 kilometers from Venice which makes it a 40-minute trip by Venetian motorboat, and since it was raining very hard it seemed a lot longer than that!


ABOUT THE ISLAND - Burano really consists of four small islands or could be considered an archipelago of four islands linked by bridges that has a population of about 2,800 people. The island was probably settled by the Romans, and in the 6th century was occupied by people from Altino, who named it for one of the gates of their former city.

LACE-MAKING - Burano is world renowned for making intricate lace. Lace-making started in the 16th century, when women on the island began making lace with needles. It was then traded with the island of Cyprus (that was ruled by Venice at that time). In

Brightly colored shutters on houses

1481, when Leonardo da Vinci visited he purchased a cloth for the main altar of the Duomo di Milano. The lace was soon exported across Europe. In 1872 a school of lace-making opened on the island. It's an extremely time-consuming skill and is expensive. 

an ornate gate Tom liked

BRIGHTLY COLORED HOUSES - Burano is also known for its small, brightly painted houses and they were beautiful! We learned that the colors actually follow a specific system and residents have to send requests for paint colors to the government. The government provides a list of the specific colors permitted for each lot.


BURANELLI COOKIES!  - Of

Buranelli cookies

course, Burano, like everywhere else around Venice has great bakeries, so we made a quick stop in the rain to get something sweet. It was there that we learned about "Buranelli Cookies" and made in the shape of an "S" that are named for the island.

Burano's boat landing

NEXT:  OFF TO FLORENCE, ITALY!